"Even free speech fundamentalists agree with US Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s point that free speech would not protect an idiot who shouted fire in a crowded theatre and caused a panic. Though as one of the most ardent free speech campaigners alive today, Aryeh Neier, points out in Index on Censorship magazine (“Radio Redux”):
“… the stress on circumstances is crucial. If the theatre were empty at the time, there would be no panic and, therefore, in Holmes’s judgement, no basis for punishing the false shout of fire.”English law now seems to suggest that merely to shout fire is enough to initiate a prosecution – which is utterly chilling for free expression".
Such hard cases make for bad legal outcomes. The UK Justice system is in danger of making itself a laughing stock over this issue.
