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07 February 2008 / Neil Parpworth
Issue: 7307 / Categories: Features , Public , Human rights , Constitutional law
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Hell and Damnation

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Is blasphemous libel a dead letter? Neil Parpworth investigates

 

The common law offence of blasphemous libel has a long and ancient history. In the modern age, however, it is rarely prosecuted. Thus prior to the prosecution of Gay News by Mary Whitehouse in Whitehouse v Gay News Ltd [1979] AC 617, [1979] 1 All ER 898, more than 50 years had passed since the last recorded prosecution for the offence (see R v Gott (1922) 16 Cr App Rep 87). Although there have been no further prosecutions since the House of Lords’ decision in  Whitehouse, there have been attempts to bring private prosecutions which have failed. Thus in R v Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, ex p Choudhury [1991] 1 All ER 306, [1991] 3 WLR 986, the Divisional Court refused to grant an order of mandamus to compel the metropolitan stipendiary magistrate to issue summonses against the author and publisher of The Satanic Verses accusing them of having committed a blasphemous libel. Although the court was of the opinion that there
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