Public Law

Please answer the following question:
The (fictional) Political Speech Bill 2018 (“the Bill”) was introduced into the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Justice earlier this year. Section 1 of the Bill declares it an offence to undermine by speech or writing in any form or context fundamental British values such as the rule of law. Section 2 empowers the Secretary of State to pass regulations, as he deems necessary, to preserve the rule of law. Section 3 empowers the Secretary of State to review all digital media content for compliance with section 1. Citizens, interest groups, media, judges etc were invited to participate in a large-scale public consultation on the Bill. It received overwhelming public support, so after the Second Reading, the Commons dispensed with all subsequent stages and passed the Bill in its original form. The Lords also passed it without amendment, and it entered into force as the Political Speech Act 2018 (“the Act”).
HiLaw is an online blog about the rule of law and fundamental human rights. It is run by a group of academics around the country. While blog posts are authored independently by its members, HiLaw assumes overall responsibility for the content and views published on the blog after rigorous peer review of individual posts.
HiLaw alerts its twitter followers to watch out for an upcoming blog post on the new legislation by Jill Parsons, a highly respected academic, titled ‘The End of Free Speech’. It notes that the post will be particularly critical of section 1 of the Act. Before the post could appear online, HiLaw’s site was taken down immediately on the instruction of the Secretary of State. According to her, HiLaw’s potential blogpost would have appeared at a time of deep political conflict in the country when any criticism of the Act, especially section 1, could destabilise the government and weaken the UK’s position in Brexit negotiations with the EU. HiLaw were not informed before the site was removed, nor was the text of the blogpost requested.Jill Parsons happens to be a prominent activist member of the small opposition party which objected to the Bill in the Parliament. After HiLaw’s website was taken down, she decided to post her blog on Facebook and share the link on Twitter. @HiLaw (HiLaw’s Twitter handle)
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