Belfast City Council is drafting legislation that will potentially be used to censor pro-life material, as well as attack the free speech of others, in the public square in what SPUC has slammed as a “blatant attack on free speech”.

The Council is set to require a permit for persons seeking to engage in activity in the public square. Pro-lifers and other protesters, preachers, buskers, and carol singers will have to apply for a permit or suffer a £500 fine.

The proposed legislation would also regulate stall literature, preventing disseminating material deemed harmful or offensive by councillors, including pro-abortion Councillor Michelle Kelly, who wants to censor abortion imagery.

“Women should not be subjected to such traumatic pictures while out shopping on a Saturday afternoon”, said Ms Kelly.

“Serious breach” of democratic rights

SPUC Northern Ireland’s Philip Lynn said: “Belfast City Council’s decision to alter byelaws reportedly comes in response to complaints about street preachers, pro-life and animal rights campaigners in the public square.

“As such, the explicit intent of the elected officials is to regulate and curtail the speech of people with whom they do not agree.

“This represents a serious breach of our fundamental democratic rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly, coming at a time when the Northern Ireland Assembly is already seeking to curtail pro-life witness outside abortion facilities.

“We ask all Belfast City Councillors to withdraw support from these amendments.”

Increasing attack on pro-life free speech

Last year, SPUC reported on a UK judge who upheld a ban preventing Christian Hacking, a pro-life campaigner, from using accurate abortion images in the constituency of pro-abortion MP Stella Creasy.

Then, this summer, NI Councillor Patrick Brown deemed an image of a 10-week baby in the womb to be “vile imagery”.

“Fetus alive in the uterus 10 weeks following fertilization – THIS IS A BABY”, the caption read. But Councillor Brown said the image of the unborn baby was “extremely graphic” and “insensitive… No one should be subjected to this sort of imagery.”

SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “The authoritarian Belfast City Council, following up on other undemocratic, anti-free speech impositions, wants to impose censorship under the guise of protection, essentially proclaiming that it knows best what truths its citizen may or may not be allowed to view.

“This is an appalling and blatant attack on free speech, which is in contravention of Articles 5 & 9 in the European Convention of Human Rights.

“This cannot be allowed to stand.”