Leferati
Mercantile Club Research
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Posted - 2008.03.26 18:21:00 -
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the servers are in london so the act would cover this .
3.4 Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred
The problem of illegal, harmful, distasteful or offensive content on FE or HE computer systems or the internet is of course not restricted to ****ography.
Internet content exists which contravenes the rules enacted to prevent the making of anti-religious statements (the law of blasphemy), the making of racist or inflammatory statements (incitement to racial hatred or "hate speech" rules - Race Relations Act 1976) and the making of politically subversive or seditious statements.
Incitement to racial hatred is governed by section 21 of the Public Order Act 1986 which states that it is an offence for a person to publish or distribute material which is threatening or abusive or insulting if:
* it is intended thereby to stir up racial hatred, or * having regard to all the circumstances, racial hatred is likely to be stirred thereby.
The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 gained Royal Assent on 16 February 2006. The Act makes it illegal to threaten people because of their religion, or to stir up hatred against a person because of their faith. It is designed to fill gaps in the current laws, which makes it illegal to threaten people on the basis of race or ethnic background. This Act extends to England and Wales only.
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 created new racially aggravated harassment and public order offences and came into force on 30 September 1998. For each of these new offences, the maximum penalty is higher than the maximum for the basic offence without the element of racial aggravation.
What is involved is that either at the time of committing the offence, or immediately before or after doing so, the offender demonstrates towards the victim hostility based on the victim's membership (or presumed membership) of a racial group. Or where the offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility towards members of a racial group based on their membership of that group.
Inciting either racial or religious hatred is therefore a criminal offence. Publishing and disseminating online materials that are likely to incite such hatred is also a criminal offence. Such incidents should be reported to the police.
As corporate entities FE and HE institutions have a responsibility not to publish and disseminate racist materials in any format including electronically. As well as the likely reputational damage, as public authorities, FE and HE institutions have a general statutory duty under The Race Relations Act 1976 (as amended), in carrying out their functions, to consider the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between people of different racial groups.
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