PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
FREEDOM OF SPEECH FOR HON. MEMBERS (18 April 2012)

That this House, noting the deeply disturbing use of the ancient offence of `scandalising a judge', considered obsolete since the end of the nineteenth century, by the Northern Ireland Attorney General against the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland the right hon. Member for Neath and Biteback Publishing, over a passage in his memoir describing an episode in 2005-06 leading up to the historic 2007 political settlement, calls on the Northern Ireland Attorney General to end this serious attack on free speech by withdrawing the proceedings for contempt; further asserts the fundamental right of hon. Members to express their views responsibly without fear of judicial censorship; and invites Mr Speaker to consider what action the House might take to defend its rights against such attacks.