The Free Speech Union says renewed calls for hate speech laws represent a return to a debate New Zealand has already had and one where the evidence, experience, and the public ultimately rejected censorship as the answer.
“Chief Executive Jillaine Heather says there is no denying that words can be cruel, hateful or simply offensive. People can be insulted, humiliated, intimidated, and hurt by what others say.
“But acknowledging that reality doesn’t mean hate speech laws are the answer. In fact, the evidence from around the world suggests they make the very problems they are intended to solve even worse.”
The Free Speech Union played a leading role in the successful campaign against the previous Labour Government’s proposed hate speech laws, arguing that vague speech restrictions would chill legitimate public debate while doing little to reduce prejudice or violence.
“The case against hate speech laws has only become stronger since we ran the last attempt at hate speech laws out of town.
“Countries with hate speech laws have not eliminated hatred. Instead, they have increasingly found those laws being used against political dissidents, religious minorities, feminists, comedians, journalists, and ordinary citizens expressing unpopular views.
“Once governments are given the power to decide which opinions are too harmful to be expressed, those powers rarely remain confined to genuine extremists.”
Heather says history repeatedly demonstrates that censorship powers never stay in the hands of those who created them.
“The people with the least institutional power are often the first to discover that speech restrictions can be turned against them. Today’s protected viewpoint can become tomorrow’s prohibited opinion. Free speech is not designed to protect popular views; it exists precisely because power changes hands.”
The Union says there is also little evidence that governments can manufacture social cohesion by policing language from the top down.
“Social cohesion cannot be legislated into existence. When governments elevate certain narratives while suppressing others, they do not eliminate disagreement. They drive it underground, fuel resentment, and undermine trust in public institutions.
“People are far more likely to live peacefully together when they know they are free to disagree openly than when they fear saying the wrong thing.”
Instead of expanding censorship laws, the Free Speech Union says New Zealand should recommit itself to a culture of tolerance.
“A tolerant society is not one where nobody is offended. It is one where people accept that living in a free society means encountering ideas they dislike, reject, or even find deeply upsetting.
“The answer to offensive speech has never been to empower the state to decide which opinions are permissible. It has been to answer bad ideas with better ones, challenge prejudice through persuasion, and reserve the criminal law for conduct that genuinely threatens or incites violence.”
Heather says if calls for hate speech laws pick up steam, the Free Speech Union will once again lead the case against them.
“We’ve had this debate before. We won it because the evidence was on our side.”
Notes
This release sets out the Free Speech Union’s position on hate speech law reform in full.
On 3 July, RNZ published an article on the political parties’ positions on hate speech law reform, which quoted the Free Speech Union’s condemnation of Brian Tamaki’s remarks. The quote was accurate but was used in a way that placed the Union among the voices calling for hate speech law reform.
The Free Speech Union wrote to RNZ on 4 July noting that the quote omitted the Union’s actual position: it condemned the remarks but opposed extending hate speech law, and pointed out that existing New Zealand law already covers incitement, threats and criminal conduct. RNZ removed the quoted material, agreeing the quote needed the wider context.
Media Contact
Jillaine Heather
CEO, Free Speech Union
media@fsu.nz
About the Free Speech Union
The Free Speech Union defends the right of New Zealanders, left, right and centre, to speak, debate, and disagree freely. A registered trade union and membership-based organisation, the Union takes cases, runs campaigns, and educates on the importance of free expression in a functioning democracy.
More information: https://www.fsu.nz
Contact
Jillaine Heather
CEO, Free Speech Union
media@fsu.nz
About the Free Speech Union
The Free Speech Union defends the right of New Zealanders, left, right and centre, to speak, debate, and disagree freely. A registered trade union and membership-based organisation, the Union takes cases, runs campaigns, and educates on the importance of free expression in a functioning democracy.
More information: https://www.fsu.nz
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Human beings cannot flourish unless they are free! We protect, expand, and fight for New Zealanders’ rights to freedom of speech, conscience, and intellectual inquiry. We envision a flourishing New Zealand civil society that values and protects vigorous debate, dissenting ideas, and freedom of speech as cultural cornerstones.