Wednesday, 6 May 2020

Court upholds ban on anti-abortion poster targeting Stella Creasy

From the Guardian (6 May):

Christian Hacking challenged council order over ‘StopStella’ ad on human rights grounds
An anti-abortion campaigner who is banned from displaying a poster featuring an image of a dead foetus alongside a picture of the Labour MP Stella Creasy has failed to overturn a council order against him.

Christian Hacking challenged the imposition of a community protection notice (CPN) after he put up the image of what he said was a “24-week-old aborted baby girl” in Creasy’s constituency in Walthamstow, north-east London.

Creasy, 43, was pregnant at the time. She has been a vocal supporter of women’s right to choose and led a successful campaign last year to extend abortion to Northern Ireland.   ................

......... At Thames magistrates court on Wednesday, the district judge Jonathan Radway dismissed the appeal during a two-minute hearing.

In his written decision, he said: “I find a prolonged static display, intended to last a couple of hours in the busy middle of the day, unavoidable to those entering the town square, of a deeply disturbing image which caused harm to some observers, is beyond the margin of what freedom of expression requires, even for political speech.

“Was the CPN a proportionate response to the situation? After anxious consideration, I have concluded it was.”

Radway said his ruling was “not about the rights and wrongs of abortion”

Full article here

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