It presages a law captured by the rhetoric
of the right to freedom
of expression without due regard to the value underlying the particular exercise
of that right; a law in which, under the guise
of the right to freedom
of expression, the «right» to offend can be exercised without responsibility or restraint providing it does not cause a disruption or disturbance in the nature
of public disorder; a law in which an impoverished amoral concept
of «public order» is judicially ordained; a law in which the right to freedom
of expression trumps — or tramples upon — other rights and values which are the vital rights and properties
of a free and democratic
society; a law to which any number
of vulnerable individuals and minorities may be exposed to uncivil, and even odious, ethnic, sexist, homophobic, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and anti-Islamic taunts providing no public disorder results; a law in which good and decent people can be used as fodder to promote a cause or promote an action for which they are not responsible and over which they have no direct control; a law which demeans the dignity
of the persons adversely affected by those asserting their right to freedom
of expression in a disorderly or offensive manner; a law in which the mores or standards
of society are set without regard to the reasonable expectations
of citizens in a free and democratic
society; and a law
marked by a lack
of empathy by the sensibilities, feelings and emotional frailties
of people who can be deeply and genuinely affronted by language and behaviour that is beyond the pale in a civil and
civilised society.