Page:Public Order Act 1986.pdf/18

16c. 64



(5) It is a defence for a person by whom offending words or behaviour were used and who is not shown to have intended to stir up racial hatred to prove that he did not know and had no reason to suspect—
 * (a) that a programme involving the use of the offending material would be broadcast or included in a cable programme service, or
 * (b) that the circumstances in which a programme involving the use of the offending material would be broadcast, or so included, or in which a programme broadcast or so included would involve the use of the offending material, would be such that racial hatred would be likely to be stirred up.

(6) A person who is not shown to have intended to stir up racial hatred is not guilty of an offence under this section if he did not know, and had no reason to suspect, that the offending material was threatening, abusive or insulting.

(7) This section does not apply—
 * (a) to the broadcasting of a programme by the British Broadcasting Corporation or the Independent Broadcasting Authority, or
 * (b) to the inclusion of a programme in a cable programme service by the reception and immediate re-transmission of a broadcast by either of those authorities.

(8) The following provisions of the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 apply to an offence under this section as they apply to a “relevant offence” as defined in section 33(2) of that Act—
 * section 33 (scripts as evidence),
 * section 34 (power to make copies of scripts and records),
 * section 35 (availability of visual and sound records);

and sections 33 and 34 of that Act apply to an offence under this section in connection with the broadcasting of a programme as they apply to an offence in connection with the inclusion of a programme in a cable programme service. Racially inflammatory material

23.—(1) A person who has in his possession written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting, or a recording of visual images or sounds which are threatening, abusive or insulting, with a view to—
 * (a) in the case of written material, its being displayed, published, distributed, broadcast or included in a cable programme service, whether by himself or another, or