UK Judges Rule No Blasphemy In The BBC’s Broadcast Of The Jerry Springer Rock Musical

A major ruling by two UK High Court Judges says that blasphemy laws do not apply to broadcasts or the theater. The ruling defeats an attempt by a Christian group for the courts to find that the BBC committed blasphemy in airing the Jerry Springer rock musical in 2005 that contained more than 200 swear words, and depicted God, Jesus (wearing a diaper), Mary, Adam and Eve and The Devil on a special Jerry Springer talk show set in hell.

Christian Voice wanted to take BBC director-general Mark Thomson to task for allowing the program to be aired (full details in the linked story on the right). A lower court in January refused to issue a summons and now two High Court judges have said the musical is not blasphemous.

But what really made their decision outstanding for freedom of the press is that the judges went further than just rule on this particular case. Instead they declared that the 1968 Theaters Act prevented prosecution for blasphemy on the stage and the 1990 Broadcasting Act gave the same protections to broadcasts. So the whole case was mute, and blasphemy laws greatly weakened although they are still on the books. .

The judges refused Christian Voice the right to appeal their rulings to the country’s highest court, The House of Lords, but they did say that because all of this had major legal ramifications that if the House of Lords wanted to review the case on their own volition then they were welcome to do so.

The BBC had always held that the rock musical that won many stage awards in London was a satire of the Jerry Springer show itself, and not exploiting the Christian religion.

“This is an important decision in the defense of free speech. We, of course, believe that broadcasters should continue to exercise great care and sensitivity when dealing with potential religious offense, and that has not changed.”

 One would think that with some 70,000 complaints against the Springer broadcast that there was a substantial body of viewers who did not believe “great care and sensitivity” was used. Which, of course, brings up the question of whether Thomson and the BBC would under such “great care and sensitivity” find acceptable the commissioning and broadcast of another Jerry Springer rock musical satire based on the Danish cartoons last year that caused so much offense to Muslims, but perhaps better we not go there?

The two judges ruled that the BBC show, which was a taped version of the stage production, “could not reasonably be regarded as aimed at, or an attack on, Christianity or what Christians held sacred.” That was rather at odds with the position of Christian Voice that called the production “an offensive, spiteful, systematic mockery and willful denigration of Christian belief.”

If Christian Right had done this right they would not have gone after the blasphemy option, but pressed the BBC on its social responsibility – “Even though the BBC had the right to broadcast it, should it have?”

At the same time we should not forget that anyone who did not wish to be offended by the stage show didn’t have to buy a ticket, just as if anyone who didn’t want to watch the TV broadcast only had to switch the channel or turn off the set.

It’s when others tell us what we can and cannot watch that we get onto the slippery slope. - Philip Stone December 6, 2007

Keywords:free speech, BBC

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