European Union to Poland: Artists Should Be Free to ‘Shock’
November 06, 2012
From the EUObserver:
The European Commission has said that Poland's prosecution of a rock group for "blasphemy" is against European values.
It said on Wednesday (31 October) in a written statement for EUobserver that "national blasphemy laws are a matter for the domestic legal order of the member states."
But it added that EU countries must respect international pacts.
It cited the European Convention of Human Rights, a Poland-signatory treaty attached to the Strasbourg-based rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, on freedom of expression.
"This right protects not only information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also those that offend, shock or disturb," the commission said.
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