{
  "generated": "2026-11-12T03:09:55.154Z",
  "about": "A research category: ordered chapters linking to sourced pages. It contains no findings of its own.",
  "id": "speech-offences",
  "path": "/speech-offences/",
  "title": "Speech offences",
  "lede": "Words the state can punish, and words it cannot.",
  "intro": "A category on the law of saying things in the UK: what turns words into a crime, what makes them a civil wrong, and where the lines run. Each chapter is sourced to the statutes and the judgments, commentary is labelled as commentary, and acquittals get the same prominence as convictions. We work on one stated assumption: explaining what the law says is not itself an offence. The Crown Prosecution Service says so for one offence, encouraging suicide. We do not know whether the same holds for every other offence; we assume it does, and we say so openly. Nothing here supports any proscribed organisation or advises anyone on what to say. It is legal research, not legal advice.",
  "checked": "2026-11-11",
  "chapters": [
    {
      "title": "Grossly offensive",
      "href": "/research/grossly-offensive/",
      "summary": "Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003: the House of Lords test in Collins, the Twitter joke trial, the Nazi pug, and the councillor who said you cannot melt people down.",
      "links": [
        {
          "label": "The test in Collins",
          "href": "/research/grossly-offensive/#the-test"
        },
        {
          "label": "Jokes and satire",
          "href": "/research/grossly-offensive/#jokes"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Private chats and cloud notes",
      "href": "/research/grossly-offensive/#private",
      "summary": "The police WhatsApp group with Wayne Couzens, what “a reasonable expectation of privacy” protects, and whether a note that syncs to your own cloud can be “sent”.",
      "links": [
        {
          "label": "The police WhatsApp group",
          "href": "/research/grossly-offensive/#whatsapp"
        },
        {
          "label": "Notes saved to your own cloud",
          "href": "/research/grossly-offensive/#cloud"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Supporting Hamas",
      "href": "/research/speech-offences/#legal-tests",
      "summary": "Inviting support, reckless expressions of support, flags and images under sections 12 and 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and the prosecutions, acquittals and dropped charges since October 2023.",
      "links": [
        {
          "label": "Convictions over symbols and posts",
          "href": "/research/speech-offences/#symbols-and-posts"
        },
        {
          "label": "Acquittals and dropped charges",
          "href": "/research/speech-offences/#further-acquittals"
        },
        {
          "label": "Hamas deproscription",
          "href": "/research/hamas-deproscription/"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Supporting Palestine Action",
      "href": "/research/speech-offences/#palestine-action-speech",
      "summary": "Placards, meetings and the mass arrests after the July 2025 proscription, the legal challenge to the ban (heard by the Supreme Court on 4 and 5 November 2026, judgment awaited), and the section 35 dispersal order outside the US Embassy.",
      "links": [
        {
          "label": "Proscription: the offences",
          "href": "/nuances/proscription-support/"
        },
        {
          "label": "The Palestine Action collection",
          "href": "/research/palestine-action/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Proscription litigation",
          "href": "/research/proscription-litigation/"
        },
        {
          "label": "The Supreme Court hearing",
          "href": "/uk-timeline/#supreme-court-hearing-2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "The US Embassy dispersal order",
          "href": "/uk-timeline/#section-35-us-embassy-2026"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Defamation",
      "href": "/research/calling-fraud-a-fraud/",
      "summary": "The civil side. You can call a fraud a fraud if you can defend it: truth, honest opinion or public interest. Applied to a real case in the Thames Water study.",
      "links": [
        {
          "label": "Calling fraud a fraud",
          "href": "/research/calling-fraud-a-fraud/"
        },
        {
          "label": "Thames Water",
          "href": "/research/thames-water/"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "“Your mother was raped by a dog”",
      "href": "/research/absurdity-paradox/",
      "summary": "The absurdity paradox. An insult nobody could believe fails as libel three times over and can still be a crime, because the criminal offences do not need anyone to believe it."
    },
    {
      "title": "Message ultra",
      "href": "/research/message-ultra/",
      "summary": "One hypothetical direct message, sent twice, that a prosecutor could charge from six directions under four statutes, and the civil claim it would still survive."
    },
    {
      "title": "What we can say, and what we can’t",
      "href": "/research/reporting-limits/",
      "summary": "Why explaining the law is not a crime, then contempt of court, reporting restrictions and the dissemination offence, applied to a live terrorism trial. Four categories: legally restricted, potentially prejudicial, protected discussion, and withheld by choice.",
      "links": [
        {
          "label": "Explaining the law",
          "href": "/research/reporting-limits/#explaining-the-law"
        },
        {
          "label": "The four categories",
          "href": "/research/reporting-limits/#four-boxes"
        },
        {
          "label": "How to know if restrictions apply",
          "href": "/research/reporting-limits/#checking"
        },
        {
          "label": "What the jury will be asked",
          "href": "/research/reporting-limits/#the-test"
        },
        {
          "label": "One live case",
          "href": "/research/reporting-limits/#live-case"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Reform tracker",
      "href": "/research/speech-law-reform/",
      "summary": "The universities free speech Act 2023, switched on in stages, and the Prosperity Institute’s draft Free Speech Bill, which would repeal several offences in this category. Law and proposal, kept apart.",
      "links": [
        {
          "label": "The 2023 Act: what is in force",
          "href": "/research/speech-law-reform/#universities-act"
        },
        {
          "label": "The draft Free Speech Bill",
          "href": "/research/speech-law-reform/#draft-bill"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The case register",
      "href": "/research/speech-offences/",
      "summary": "45 sourced case records: Hamas-related proceedings, journalism, symbols, Palestine Action expression and meetings, communications, performance and protest conditions, with dated outcomes and a coverage audit."
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    {
      "label": "Public order and protest",
      "href": "/research/public-order/"
    },
    {
      "label": "UK timeline",
      "href": "/uk-timeline/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Terrorism and proscribed organisations policy",
      "href": "/legal/terrorism-and-proscribed-organisations/"
    }
  ],
  "url": "https://independenttribunal.org/speech-offences/"
}