[JURIST] English comedian Rowan Atkinson, famed for his starring role in Blackadder and other UK comedy series, lashed out Monday evening against a proposed UK law to ban the incitement of religious hatred. Speaking at a meeting in Westminster Hall convened by writers, MPs and groups opposed to the legislation, Atkinson warned that such a law was an inappropriate response to a problem and would unduly stifle free speech:

To criticise a person for their race is a manifestly irrational and ridiculous. But to criticise their religion – that is a right. That is a freedom. And a law that attempts to say you can criticise or ridicule ideas, as long as they are not religious ideas, is a very peculiar law indeed. It all points to the promotion of the idea there should be a right not to be offended… In my view, the right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended.