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Many people were outraged when they read that a woman who had burnt the New Zealand Flag at an ANZAC day ceremony has escaped conviction. “It is extraordinarily hard to defend freedom when it insults something you revere” says Anthony Hubbard. The fuss over the Virgin in a Condom statue at Te Papa was a good example. Many Catholics took great offence, and seemed to think that people with religious beliefs had a special right not to be offended. This is nonsense.”
“The Supreme Court ruling in favour of flag-burner Valerie Morse “is a splendid thing that will disgust some people. But real freedom must include the freedom to infuriate.” said Hubbard
Valerie Morse an activist who burned the New Zealand flag at an ANZACDay dawn service has had her conviction quashed by the Supreme Court. She was convicted, in Wellington District Court, of disorderly behaviour after her protest near the Cenotaph in Wellington in 2007. The conviction was upheld by the High Court and the Court of Appeal, but Ms Morse challenged that ruling all the way to the country’s highest court and yesterday the Supreme Court quashed the conviction.
Its judgment found that the district court judge had misunderstood the meaning of offensive behaviour. While the five Supreme Court judges differed in their definitions of “offensive behaviour”, most believed it had to be capable of “wounding feelings or arousing real anger, resentment disgust or outrage”.
Steven Price, one of Morse’s lawyers, says the judges found that protesters “can’t be arrested and convicted for offensive behaviour unless the police can show there is a disturbance of public order”.
Source
Anthony Hubbard Sunday Star Times
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