As the Edinburgh Festival Fringe comes to a close for another year, Scottish PEN finds itself in a position for a second year running where it must express regret regarding a continuing situation in Scotland and beyond pursuant to which venues may cancel previously-booked events on the grounds of small numbers of complaints from interested parties. The cancellation of performances by the comedian Reginald D. Hunter is but the latest example.
As Scottish PEN feared last year, a precedent has been established whereby an individual may be invited to participate in an event, and then dis-invited so as not to offend a number of other individuals, where there is no legal finding of hate speech. We note that the right to offend is integral to freedom of expression.
What is of particular concern is that interested parties across any number of issues have also identified this situation and these precedents, and recognised their potential to be used to stop the staging of events and the expression of views to which they might be opposed.
We strongly encourage venues and members of the artistic community throughout Scotland to be aware of these developments and join us in opposing the suppression of freedom of expression.
As always, Scottish PEN remains committed to the principles of the PEN Charter, including championing the ideal one humanity living in peace and equality. In light of the foregoing, the organisation hopes it would go almost without saying that Scottish PEN stands against hate speech, which has the potential to silence voices and, as such, threaten freedom of expression.
Image credit: Matt Murtagh, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Altered – background images blurred to protect artists