Submission on the Hate Speech Bill (2018)

The Free Market Foundation, which has been involved in every step of the public participation process since the first version of the Bill was announced, remains concerned about the following three factors of the new Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill of 2018:

• The hate speech provisions in the Bill, as in 2016, remain unnecessary, as existing anti-hate speech law and doctrine is sufficient.
• The Bill’s definition of hate speech does not align fully with the constitutional definition of hate speech, which it must; and,
• The Bill’s definition of hate speech is unnecessarily complicated and stated in unashamed legalese, making it difficult for those to who it applies, to understand it.