Free speech in Dublin

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Friday April 28, 2006 23:26

by John Kelly

The right of free speech has been limited. We will not be told to shut up and we're taking this message to the Mayor of Dublin next Thursday.

You may or may not be aware that no facilities exist in Dublin for the display of notices of social or public concern on public property. In addition to this Dublin City Council remove and destroy all notices of meetings or public assembly on public property. This policy has been condemned by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The policy does not apply to commercial notices, eg concerts or other forms of entertainment. Its application to anything critical of govt policy is excercised with rigour and dispatch by DCC. I and many others, did not know for example, about a public meeting re the
"critical infrastructure bill" in Taylors Hall approximately six weeks ago.

This unlawful and unconstitutional policy of DCC and other councils is negating campaigns that lack the resources to bring their concerns to the broadest range of people.

In order to highlight this policy and a with view to having it revoked at City Hall by elected councillors, a demonstration is scheduled for the Mansion House at 11am to 1200, May 4, 2006. The Lord Mayor is empowered to elevate a drafted motion to revoke this policy and put it to a vote, to the commencement of any council meeting. This motion has been on DCC's agenda since last year. The Mayor has been requested to excercise her power to do this but has not done so. Publicity is the principal aim of this demonstration and our placards will focus upon this denial of a basic civil right to ordinary citizens and as such we are requesting that party political advertisements will not be a feature of the protest.

All citizens concerned at this violation of a fundamental right guaranteed by our Constitution are welcome to attend.
Yours sincerely

John Kelly

Comments (5 of 5)

Poster Proposal: Public billboards everywhere + Infrastructure Bill

by Terence

Sat Apr 29, 2006 02:04

Every major street, shopping area, public space, main road, park, housing estate should have a site where the council would put up a billboard on which public notices could be placed. This would be in keeping with our so called constitution which is not so very effectively adhered to as we don't have anything that could be consider free speech.

Denial of the opportunity for free speech is pretty much denial of free speech itself.

What a lot of people don't realize is that the poster ban by the government is their most effective secret weapon. I would think after Feb 15th 2003 when 100K people turned out on the streets, they got scared shitless and figured the best thing is to choke any grassroots media campaign at birth.

Oh yeah and the Infrastructure Bill is all about taking away whatever tiny rights you have left to have a say in how and what things are built. It's a means for the government to build whatever they like by decree.

See the link below for previous coverage of The Planning and Development Bill 2006 (Strategic Infrastructure Bill)
BTW, there appears to be draft forms of it on the web, but they are hard to read, since I think these Bills are often built up on previous ones, so you need access to them as well.

Publicity

by May the Fourth be with you

Sat Apr 29, 2006 02:29

If publicity is the main aim of the protest, why is it happening at 11AM on a Thursday morning, when few people will be able to attend?

Tis early because..........

by R2D2 Ryan

Sat Apr 29, 2006 03:24

It's being held early to facilitate the media. I know this puts a major blockage on many, workers, etc. apologies for that. If this can be made into a national issue (as it deserves to be) we can beat it and at the same time illustrate the depths to which our government will sink in order to silence dissent.

I'm still hoping for a good turnout, if it's an important enough issue for people most will find a way. I have to travel from Tipp the night before due to the early start, so yup tis a pain in the arse being so early, but for the chance to make this national, it's well worth the effort.