Mr Bean, aka the Blackadder star, Rowan Atkinson, warns of creating “a culture of censoriousness" by removing free speech.The comedian Rowan Atkinson has urged the House of Lords to vote against a Government attempt to delete free speech protection from a ‘homophobic hatred’ offence. The Government is using the Coroners and Justice Bill to delete the protection added by Parliament in May last year. Mr Atkinson was speaking at a meeting on the issue held at the House of Lords on Tuesday. An amendment to keep the free speech protection may be voted on in the Commons next week. But the Government is expected to use its majority to force deletion through. The matter will then be passed to the House of Lords.
Mr Atkinson, famous for his roles in Blackadder and Mr Bean, told Peers in the House of Lords: “Do I think that I would risk prosecution because of jokes or drama about sexual orientation with which I might be involved if we don’t have the free speech clause? “Not really – but I dread something almost as bad – a culture of censoriousness, a questioning, negative and leaden attitude that is encouraged by legislation of this nature but is considerably and meaningfully alleviated by the free speech clause.”
He added: “It would provide succour and reassurance to those of us in the creative world and I would plead for its retention.” Mr Atkinson also criticised “hate speech” legislation in general. He said: “The last thing that any academic, or cleric, or practitioner in creative writing wants to hear, is of police officers walking round with a tool box bulging with sanctions against speech and expression that ‘could be useful one day’. “I do not believe that legislation of such a censorious nature as that of Hate Speech, carrying as it does the risk of a seven year jail sentence for saying the wrong thing in the wrong way, can ever by justified merely by the desire to ‘send the right message’.”
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