Holocaust denial, hyperlinks and YouTube: Chabloz again.

Background

Alison Chabloz was convicted in 2018 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of three offences contrary to s.127(1) of the Communications Act 2003, under which:

“A person is guilty of an offence if he—(a) sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or (b) causes any such message or matter to be so sent.”

Two of the alleged offences related to a video on YouTube of her singing two songs, (((Survivors))) and Nemo’s Anti-Semitic Universe, to an audience in a central London hotel in September 2016: she had not uploaded the video herself but she did embed a hyperlink to the YouTube video in her blog. The third related to a video of her singing a song entitled I like the story as it is – SATIRE which she uploaded to YouTube in September 2017. On appeal, in R v Alison Chabloz [2019] Southwark Crown Court 13 February, the issue was whether or not the three songs were “grossly offensive” [2]. She lost, and we noted the case here.

She then sought to appeal by way of case stated; Continue reading