Recommendation 10

The word “insulting” should be removed from the definition of “offensive conduct” within Subsection (8) of new Section 60C, as set out in Clause 61. Doing so would continue to catch threatening or abusive behaviour, but without risking an unjustified interference with the right to free speech under Article 10 ECHR. This would also ensure that members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community would not be prosecuted for the language they use in heightened emotional situations, based on an interpretation of ‘insulting’ by other private citizens who may, in some circumstances, be influenced by conscious or unconscious prejudice against them.