27 April 2011 : from The Irish PEN website
” PEN International strongly supports the repeal of Ireland’s Defamation Act of 2009 and an amendment to the Irish Constitution‘s requirement that blasphemy be prohibited under Irish law.
PEN is an organization whose members pledge to promote good understanding and mutual respect between nations and to do their utmost to dispel race, class and national hatreds. We deplore the distrust, disparagement or denigration of any individual based on her or his religious beliefs. We condemn discrimination, threats, harassment, or violence against individuals based on their religion and support national and international prohibitions against such actions. PEN and its member centers are engaged in activities and programs around the globe aimed at reducing religious hatreds and suspicions in the post-September 11, 2001 world.
“We are adamantly opposed to criminalizing speech considered insulting or offensive to religions,” states PEN International President, John Ralston Saul. “Religions are systems of ideas, embodied in institutions and sometimes states. As such, they cannot lie outside the bounds of questioning, criticism and description – the whole terrain of free expression“. Insult and blasphemy laws such as Ireland’s Defamation Act of 2009 clearly run counter to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and other international free expression protections. Moreover, they do little to advance the goal of promoting respect. “
Archive for the ‘Blasphemies’ Category
- 04/07/2011 Poetry Now Festival and Dún Laoighre CC Funding Cuts. posted in Blasphemies, Campaigns,Censorships tagged Arts, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Literature, poetry, Poetry Book Society, Salt Publishing
- 04/01/2011 Dispossessions: News of the Fightback against Poetry Cuts in the ACE 2011. posted inAlphabets, Blasphemies, Campaigns, Dispossession tagged Arts Council England, Blake Morrison, Carol Ann Duffy, Don Paterson, Poetry Book Society
- 03/30/2011 Salt Publishing, ‘Just One Book Campaign’ posted in Blasphemies, Campaigns, How Words Play., Letters tagged Alan Gillis, Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Chris Agee, Derek Mahon, Leontia Flynn, Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon, Seamus Heaney, Sinéad Morrissey
- 03/18/2011 Irish PEN : ‘Urgent Need for Constitutional Referendum on Blasphemy’. posted inBlasphemies, Campaigns tagged blasphemy, Constitution of Ireland, freedom of speech, Ireland, PEN International, Referendum
- 12/28/2010 ‘Vatican’ by Daragh Breen. posted in Blasphemies, Censorships, Ephemera, Images, Maps,Sex (mature category), War tagged art, David Wojnarowicz, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,Story of the Eye, Ted Hughes, Washington Post, World Aids Day
-
- 12/15/2010 The first anniversary of Ireland’s blasphemy criminalisation, ‘Incentivisation’. posted inBlasphemies, Campaigns, Censorships, Dispossession, Maps, Translation tagged Atheist Ireland, blasphemy,defamation, Dermot Ahern, freedom of speech, Freedom of the press, Ireland, Reporters Without Borders,The Irish Times
- 10/02/2010 A Personal Anarchist Manifesto : by Poethead. posted in Alphabets, Blasphemies, How Words Play., Letters tagged art, Culture, heritage, letters
- 09/19/2010 International Pen : Writers Urge U.N. to Abandon Efforts to Prohibit Defamation of Religions, Concentrate Instead on Respect-Building Initiatives posted in Alphabets, Blasphemies, Campaigns,Censorships, How Words Play., Maps, Translation tagged blasphemy, defamation, freedom of speech
- 08/01/2010 The Old King : the criminalisation for blasphemy remains on the Irish statute. posted inBlasphemies, Campaigns, Censorships, Ephemera, Images, Magic, Visions, War tagged Arts Council,blasphemy, Fianna Fáil, Louis Le Brocquy, Teachta Dála
- 05/23/2010 Reposting Excerpts from ‘Tula’ by Leo Tolstoy. posted in Blasphemies, Censorships,Ephemera, Gardening, How Words Play., Images, Translation tagged Anna Karenina, Edith Sitwell, Leo Tolstoy,Russia, simone weil, War and Peace (Shared Experience)
Related Links here
http://www.irishpen.com/wordpress/2011/03/31/writers-hail-u-n-accord-ending-push-to-ban-blasphemy/
Chris Murray 