Irish Justice Minister Proposes Blasphemy Law

Irish Times reports today that the country's Minister of Justice plans to introduce an amendment to a pending Defamation Bill to create a new crime of blasphemous libel. The proposed legislation would prohibit publishing or uttering matter "that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage." Currently Ireland has no statute on blasphemy, even though the Irish Constitution (Art. 40, Sec. 6.1) provides: "The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent material is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law." Last year the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution recommended amending the Constitution to remove references to sedition and blasphemy.