Below is my column in Fox.com on the arrest of a well-known comedian in Great Britain. While the three social media posts in question were political commentary rather than jokes, the arrest of Graham Linehan is only the latest arrest of a comedian as part of the global crackdown on free speech. The postings would be considered protected speech in the United States and should be protected anywhere. The rising censorship is literally no joke in various Western countries.
Here is the column:
In the anti-free speech community, the most intolerable form of speech often seems to be humor. For thousands of years, satire and parody have proven to be the most penetrating —and at times, irritating —forms of political speech. Even with absolute rulers, court jesters were often the few figures who could challenge a king. As Shakespeare wrote in King Lear, “jesters do oft prove prophets.”
In the case of comedian Graham Linehan, he has unwittingly become a prophet for the death of not just free speech, but humor, in the United Kingdom. The co-creator of the U.K. sitcom “Father Ted” was arrested at London Heathrow Airport, allegedly over several social media posts criticizing transgender activists. The posts were not jokes, but political commentary.
Linehan ended up in the hospital after he said that he was met with five armed officers, who told him he was being arrested over three posts on X. In his posting, he felt the need as a comedic writer to emphasize “no, I promise you, I am not making this up.”
He said that officers interrogated him over a post in which he wrote, “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act.” He added that people would be compelled to make a scene, call the police, or even “punch” the offender.
London’s Metropolitan Police admits that it did indeed arrest a man “in relation to posts on X.” Linehan said that he was told that there would be only one bail condition “I am not to go on Twitter. That’s it. No threats, no speeches about the seriousness of my crimes – just a legal gag order designed to shut me up while I’m in the U.K..”
For those who live in Great Britain or other European countries, this is hardly surprising. The government has steadily increased its criminalization and regulation of speech, including religious and political speech, under such laws as the Communications Act of 2003 and the Online Safety Act of 2023.
British citizens are not alone. For years, free speech has been no laughing matter in Europe and other parts of the world. Comedians have been charged in countries ranging from France to Germany to Brazil to Turkey to Canada for insulting jokes.
In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how free speech is in free fall in Europe, where the European Union is pushing for global censorship of social media, including American companies. The most triggering sound for many today is the sound of laughter from those who hold opposing views.
In Scotland, comedians opposed a draconian law that threatened to criminalize a wide swath of jokes. It would allow the arrest of anyone deemed guilty of “stirring up hatred” against a group of persons and even allowed for arrests for possessing inflammatory material with a view to communicating the material.
The pathological lack of humor is shared by many in this country. In Hawaii, comedians and others opposed a law that criminalizes “recklessly” distributing “materially deceptive media.” At universities, the dominant anti-free speech culture is raising not just a generation of speech phobics but humorless speech phobics.
Past polls showed that as many as six out of ten students viewed “offensive jokes” to be ‘hate speech.” Comedians have been routinely canceled on campuses and many will no longer perform at colleges and universities due to the intolerance.
The public itself still values edgy comedy. That is shown by the ratings of shows like Gutfeld! which has long dominated network evening comedy shows. It turns out that the public does not want humor that runs only from the left to the far left. “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was reportedly gushing not just viewers but $50 million a year with its left-only humor shtick.
Ironically, a country that brought us Monty Python is now mainstreaming George Orwell. In Great Britain, the range of acceptable humor is left to the government to decide. It is a standard that seems to follow the dubious lead of Potter Stewart on recognizing pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964): “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.”
Comedians like Linehan are left with permissible humor dictated by the anemic comedic stylings of the far left or that of the Metropolitan Police.
Empowered by such censorship laws, activists often seem to spend more time trying to silence others in Europe than speaking for themselves. Individuals and groups will often file criminal complaints against those with opposing views. That has included an unrelenting campaign against author J.K. Rowling and others who have opposed transgender policies as destroying feminist gains in sports and other fields.
Of course, censorship itself is now a form of release for the humor-challenged and viewpoint-intolerant. While most sensible people look at Linehan’s arrest with horror, it was a thrill, even fun, for those who use these laws. There is little fear that these laws could be used against themselves. After all, Will Rogers explained “everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.”
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of the best-selling “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Using the measuring stick of “guilt-by-association” (the entire group is guilty due to the actions of less than 1% of it’s members) would mean the entire MAGA movement is guilty of supporting a coup attempt on January 6.
Stupid is very strong with this one…
“Using the measuring stick of” straw man, your analogy is bogus.
There was no coup attempt on Jan6. That is just another lie passed on by MSM, the DNC and their dupes.
Rabble:
To straw-man it back, that also means the entire Democrat movement is guilty of voter fraud.
AS Dustoff noted the stupid is very strong in you. There was no coup attempt.
There was a large scale excercise of first amendment rights. Such as speach, assembly and petitioning government.
Violence broke out when AFTER tear gassing themselves the CP at the west tunnel entrance lobed a tear gas grenade without any warning into a peaceful crowd that was NOT doing anything wrong
That is assault, That is violation of civil rights under color of law.
Law enforcement has the power to use FORCE against others. But NOT peacefull people who are not violating the law.
If there had been an actual coup attempt – the J6ers would have been armed – nearly all owned firearms but only law enforcement has Firearms at J6. The only use of Firearms was the Murder of Alishi Babbit.
There were no molotov cocktails no frozen water bottles, no lasers to blind police, no tactical gear. ‘
NONE of the instruments of violence that the left takes to every peaceful protest.
If foreign leaders such as Macron and Starmer are viewed as threats to free speech, then why not Putin, too?
Duh, I dunno, why not Putin too, dar-de-dar?
Of Course Putin is a threat to free speech – as well as myriads of other things.
Starmer and Marcon represent a REGRESSION with respect to free speech – a change of nations headed in the right direction on individual rights to headed ij the wrong direction.
While Putin is far more represive than Either Putin’s russia is still more free than the USSR
There are other even more repressive regimes than the UK and France or even Putin.
And some of these such as the Saudi’s and Turks are our allies.
The problem with the UK and FR is that they are going the wrong direction.
They are headed TOWARDS totalitarianism not aware from it.
They have a long way to go even to get as bad as Russia.
But they KNOW better and still choose repression
Rabble:
Have you, idiot who neuters speech on this site by obfuscation, ever considered that more than one thing may be true at any given time?
It seems the the British still have still not learned their lesson 250 years after losing their American colonies in a war for freedom of speech, and other freedoms.
BTW, if in Scotland the law “. . . would allow the arrest of anyone deemed guilty of ‘stirring up hatred’ against a group of persons”, does the same law allow for the arrest of politicians, their supporters, and the police who stir up hatred of those who oppose the law against “stirring up hatred”?
*. It is such an interesting tactic in population deletion with minimal common war machine invasion. The goal isn’t so much which or what replaces the existing population but that the population itself is deleted. It could be any foreign culture as the replacement.
Ireland’s population is being deleted by simple cultural invasion with government support and strong-arm. When Irish population is accomplished Ireland no longer exists. The UK government is the enemy. The invaders merely set up shop and breed with government protection.
The new war tactic is so called planned “migration” which provides the disguise of the goal.
Quite brilliant. The slaves of Islam are available to spread the “peace” of its slave cult always willing if need be to kill. Peace must be spread. The Hindus merely set up shop and are not known for their serial murders. The Africans want food. The requirement is breed.
So it is…
DJT sees it and fights it. That’s what he’s doing. Putin is committing suicide That’s okay , too. Poland is a hold out. Italy is quietly fighting it by limiting who comes and goes. China keeps chugging along and tires easily when too much stupidity gets in the way. The EU government committed suicide. Africa will be mined with wildlife disregarded.
The new war tactic is noted, Vincente.
It’s not our war.
If Brits want the freedom to make fun of the princess wand, they should fight for it themselves.
I agree
NO-one said it was…
The author of this article is implying as much.
The left including the vicious ‘wanna be’ tyrant Starmer are now fully allied with their ‘blood brothers and sisters’, followers of Islam (FOI). The alliance makes perfect sense since both groups hate, fear, and try to destroy freedom and individual rights (FAIR) wherever they find them, in the EU and world wide. America demonstrates the absolutely life crucial issue of a written Constitution defending FAIR in general and in particular the bedrock of all freedoms, freedom of speech. Of course the left and FOI here in America do everything they can to try to undermine the Constitution in order to achieve what both groups desperately want, replacing our free country with a socialist-fascist-Islamic police state. Those Brits who value FAIR must get busy defending FAIR or scum like Starmer will enslave them.
The UK is worse than straight Orwellian, it is a cartoonish, over the top, parody of Orwellian dynamics. It is sickening. They can save themsrlves.
Perhaps some of the old IRA can restart import channels and prepare Britain to fight for its life.
Turf out Islam and the enemies of Britain currently holding office and there’s a chance.
No hold breath.
The IRA is a Marxist organization and is fully on board with the new censorship.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights reveal and codify all the preexisting natural and God-given rights, freedoms, privileges, and immunities, which are absolute or they don’t exist.
Defamation and speech-criminalization laws are unconstitutional and constitute denial of the freedom of speech.
The U.S. suing a flag burner for defamation or prosecuting a person for pointing out that something was unusual, odd, or “as queer as a two-dollar bill” would constitute a denial of the freedom of speech.
Words cannot hurt another, while the truth may.
______________________________________________________
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
– Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen, 1830
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
Judges take a sworn oath to support the Constitution; they shred it.
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, PBS, NPR, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare”–ALL or THE WHOLE WELL PROCEED through governmental provision of security and basic infrastructure–omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor, or charity. The same Article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces.
Further, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
_____________________________________________________________________
“[Private property is] that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.”
– James Madison
_____________________
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure.
The Necessary and Proper Clause is nothing more than a perfunctory redundancy for the purposes of clarification—a reinforcement of that which was previously codified—and may not be wielded to amend and impose separate acts that do not represent but alter the letter and spirit of the Founders and Framers.
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then, and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
The United States must reject and deny any trade or relations with any and all foreign countries that do not adopt the American Constitution and Bill of Rights as their fundamental law immediately, if not sooner.
Stick and stones MAY bark my bones but GOVERNMENT THUGS will most CERTAINLY hurt me.
Not as frequently as non-government thugs.
Yet if you burn a gay flag, they put you in jail. Even better if you drive over a gay cross-walk they will arrest you for that.
You libs cry about right to burn the American flag, but no issue with the other.
Western Society has gone [bonkers], reasoning that WORDS are damageable to the mind. Only an Egotistical Fool and coward would accept that. This cadre of fools constantly use “Yes but” as their defense, then accusations of harm to further their claim and the need for State enforcement of their Heavenly Desires. Ipso Facto: they have abandoned Natures Law, and queered the meanings of Mans Law, where insult is punishable by the State.
Here’s another new story out of Britain:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/retired-police-officer-questioned-after-using-trans-woman-s-male-name/ar-AA1M0FKV?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=97260caf370a4236a745d3360ef9cafc&ei=9
(In her private X account, a retired police superintendent (30+ yrs. service) in South Wales referred to a trans female as Fred instead of the new name Freda. Three police officers showed up unannounced at her residence.)
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In the United States, I find remarkable the amount of attention and the bloated, overly-represented MSM/MEDIA platforms being dedicated to trans issues/parades/flags/banners/floats/celebrities and celebrations), -considering population representation.
We’re moving from social activism to Social Engineering.
———————-
https://www.dailywire.com/news/she-persisted-childrens-book-for-little-girls-will-feature-trans-identifying-rachel-levines-story
*. It’s more like the mad hatter. No one should support it. I have noticed there is a group of people who appear to have sworn an allegiance to harmful acts.
I suppose it’ll be war. They’re importing males in Ireland. That must be their base for attack. 26 mosques in one area. The government has betrayed its people which translates to the worst crime.
*. Linehan was taken to hospital after arrest because his blood pressure spiked to over 200.
He truly hates the trans advocates.
Dear Prof Turley,
There is no need to dwell on the speck in our British brother’s eye, or twist the mother-tongue of free speech. .. as Lord Byron once said; The bloody Brits and the Americans are two peoples separated by a common restroom.
Little wonder PM Starmer is polling around 6%. .. he’s screwing the whole country.
Of course, everyone has a price.
dg
The bloody Brits and the Americans are two peoples separated by a common restroom.
*****************
So you admit. you want men in girls bathroom. WOW how lib of you.
It isn’t only the UK that is deathly ill with self-inflicted wounds in the form of speech control. That eminent hypocritical @$$h@t President Emmanuel Micron (yes, I do know the correct spelling, thank you) of France, while espousing freedom of speech in public, has been deliberately moving behind the scenes for years to develop the absolute ability of government, through NGOs and Karens, to ensure that any speech that he disfavored would never be available to be read by the hoi polloi.
Macron’s selective defence of free speech
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/macron-is-a-selective-defender-of-free-speech/
He’s a piece of work. He’s leading the way in trying to reward the most brutal act of terrorism since the Holocaust with a new, sovereign state – to act as a base for more terrorism. The cheese and wine in France have gone rotten, they are now full of mold and vinegar.
The most brutal act of terrorism since the Holocaust is the sovereign state of Israel’s psychopathic ethnic cleansing of what remains of the 2.2 million people in Gaza – most of them women and children.
*but you’re right about Macron .. . he just called the Russians ‘orges’ (pronounced ‘orks’) and threatened to send Briton’s remaining 30,000 troops to the eastern front in Ukraine.
Your brain goes haywire on this topic. Israel defends itself from a terrorist thug regime, and you call that terrorism. The civilian deaths are Hamas’s fault because that is their goal as they use human shields and position their rocket batteries in hospitals and other civilian facilities. Israel sends in thousands of trucks of aid for the civilians – ask yourself when that ever happened in human history toward a nation with which another nation was at war. Nothing you say on this topic has any connection to reality. Your brain has been fried by Jew-hatred, and I’m afraid there seems to be little chance of a cure.
This topic does get my dander up, old man.
Please. ..You wouldn’t know ‘Hamas’ if he was sitting next to Bibi in the Israel Knesset.
*I love the younger Jews in NYC .. . they voted for that Muslim socialist dude for mayor.
” they voted for that Muslim socialist dude for mayor.”
All that means is that you are not alone in your stupidity.
What have you got against the young Jews in NYC, S. Meyer? They chose that Muslim dude .. . I don’t live there no more.
*’stupid is as stupid does’ ~ Forrest Gump
I am very familiar with the young ones. Many are brain-dead when dealing with this kind of issue. When you talk to them up close, one can see that they are lost. My assumption was that they are more lost today than
The last time I had long discussions with them was about 10 years ago at Occupy Wall Street. I was interested in the event, so I flew up to NYC for a short vacation and to see what was happening. I was shocked at the mess they made. People were urinating and defecating in the street and on police cars. I decided to talk with about a dozen of them to find out what was going on in this new tent city while the leaders stayed in plush hotels. None of them really knew much, but the surprising thing was that most of those I talked with sounded libertarian and didn’t know much about what they were protesting. (However, they were selected based on their willingness to talk, while not being high on drugs or drunk.)
You can not “sound libertarian” and be at an OWS protestest
John, you proved my point. Most were young and lacked experience and wisdom. Young people often emphasize individual freedom and choice. They are skeptical of authority. All of this comes across as libertarian sounding. If you ask them about policy, suddenly they turn to the left on spending, but then back again if they see what they are losing.
Meyer – I always thought of the OWS movement as a bit of a conundrum. I respected their enthusiasm and their freedom of speech. But at the center of the movement there seemed to be a contradiction: anarchists for more government.
Kansas, that is the best explanation of OWS.
I see no evidence that SM has anything against young jewish dudes except their obvious stupidity
dg
They chose that Muslim dude
Any proof on that comment?
“The goal of socialism is communism.”
– Lenin
__________
Communism is unconstitutional.
Somebody tell the Supreme Court.
The labels do not matter – the precondition for peace is that those people who invaded a sovereign nation and visciously murdered 1100 innocent civilians to stop doing that.
There are two points that are not made very often on this:
1. The war in Gaza would end promptly if Hamas surrendered and disarmed; and
2. Civilians would have been safer if Egypt had not refused to allow any of them to leave and take up temporary refugee status.
Add a third, the West supported Hamas terrorism: antisemitism never disappeared from Europe.
Daniela no nation in the world wants palestinians – for good reason.
Even in the Arab countries they have migrated to they have been vioent, staged coups and assassinations.
In a perfect world your claim would be true – in this world Egypt properly decided that helping th palestinians would likely bite them in the ass
If there is starvation and genocide in Gaza, why don’t they release the hostages?
Because there is no starvation and genocide there. All the media narratives on that have fallen apart. The photos are staged, the individuals are suffering from a medical condition, not starvation, thousands of trucks go in there with aid every week, the population keeps growing. (Weird “genocide” where the population increases)
Peace in the Middle East has always been easy: you want peace? Don’t attack Israel. Simple as that. Israel has never, and will never, attack anyone who tries to live peacefully with her.
Once the new group began to distribute aid the UN refused to do so, despite Israeli offers to facilitate it.
What remains of 2.2M Gazans is 2.2M Gazans – or possible 2.3M
After 9/11 the US invaded two countries and killed atleast 250K innoncent civilians along with lots of terrorists and enemy combatants. The actual death toll is likely closer to 2M.
Israel is doing a far bettr job then the US at avoiding noncombatant casuaties.
Israel’s conduct is not perfect. But the ONLY requirement for peace in the Mideast is for the terrorists like HAMAS to be peaceful.
“Israel is doing a far better job then the US at avoiding noncombatant casualties. ”
That is certainly a perspective worthy of consideration.
Even if there were any innocent civilians in the Gaza strip — which there aren’t — why would they deserve more consideration than we gave German civilians in WW2? Israel goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, even though they are all guilty; but why should it?
I think it is wrong to do so, and when it sacrifices its own soldiers’ lives to save enemy civilians — even hypothetical innocent ones — that is murder. Israeli soldiers are willing to give their lives to protect their own people, not to protect the enemy.
In WW2 we bombed military targets and didn’t care how many civilians died. We didn’t send them food or aid; if they starved that was their lookout. And no one thought there was anything wrong with that. So why is Israel different? The only answer is antisemitism; Jews are not allowed to defend themselves the way everyone else does, because Jews don’t deserve to live. Jews don’t deserve to defend their state, because they are not allowed to have a state. A “Palestinian” state that will slaughter the Jews is fine; but a Jewish state is inherently illegitimate, and therefore must justify itself at every step, and must never be allowed to win the war once and for all.
Germany begged for a ceasefire, for an armistice. We said no. We prolonged the war, and the German civilians’ suffering, for most of a year because we refused to accept anything but unconditional surrender. Why should Israel not do the same?
Milhouse
Germany begged for a ceasefire
******************
Before Hitlers death????
Yes, before Hitler’s death. As soon as they realized they couldn’t win they wanted to negotiate terms. The Allies said “Unconditional surrender or nothing”.
dg
No-one cares about Gaza. They did it to them selves.
They only schooling their kids have is kill the jews and nothing more.
Ask yourself this. Why has no Arab country taken in the Pals. Check some history and you will find out. If you know how.