Free Speech Coalition

Kiwiblog's David Farrar

It's pretty obvious that the Free Speech Coalition has been misnamed. Don’t let their deceptive title trick you; the American based international organisation has nothing to do with actual freedom of speech. In fact one of the NZ branch trustees, David Farrar, is a strong believer in suppressing other people's speech...especially when it's directed against him or those he supports, namely the National Party.

One of the Coalition’s goals is to remove restrictions placed on pornographic material, including restrictions on child pornography. Their belief that pedophiles should have the freedom to disseminate child pornography is so strong that they regularly undertake costly legal action, and in 2002 they even attempted to remove laws that govern restrictions on child pornography.

 

The lawsuit was heard in a United States District Court:

The Free Speech Coalition alleged that the first provision, prohibiting images that appear to be children engaged in sexual activity, and the second, prohibiting speech that conveys the impression that the images depict minors engaged in sexual activity, were overbroad, vague, and had a chilling effect on their legitimate work. The district court disagreed, adding that the overbreadth claim was specious as it was highly unlikely that any adaptations of sexual works like Romeo and Juliet... will be treated as criminal contraband.

What the Free Speech Coalition was trying to do was allow child pornography to be published unless the age of those being abused can be proven. Of course this is an impossible task to achieve. They argued that the appearance of youthfulness was not enough to show that the material was child pornography and that alteration to pornographic material to make people appear or sound like children should be allowed.

A couple of weeks ago the Jackal asked David Farrar a couple of pertinent questions relating to his involvement as a trustee of the Free Speech Coalition:

Is it true that the Free Speech Coalition wants to lawfully disseminate child pornography?

Does the New Zealand branch of the Free Speech Coalition support the publication of child pornography?

Predictably there was no response. It appears that David Farrar et al are happy to sit in their corners believing themselves unaccountable and living in ignorance of the damage child abuse causes. Their apparent support of such abuse also raises another question… Is it acceptable for political parties such as National and Act to be associated with organisations that support child pornography? The only answer to that question is a resounding no!