Section 22: Broadcasting or including programme in cable programme service., Public Order Act 1986

If a programme involving threatening, abusive or insulting visual images or sounds is included in a programme service, each of the persons mentioned in subsection (2) is guilty of an offence if—

he intends thereby to stir up racial hatred, or

having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.

The persons are—

the person providing the . . . programme service,

any person by whom the programme is produced or directed, and

any person by whom offending words or behaviour are used.

If the person providing the service, or a person by whom the programme was produced or directed, is not shown to have intended to stir up racial hatred, it is a defence for him to prove that—

he did not know and had no reason to suspect that the programme would involve the offending material, and

having regard to the circumstances in which the programme was included in a programme service, it was not reasonably practicable for him to secure the removal of the material.

It is a defence for a person by whom the programme was produced or directed 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—

that the programme would be included in a programme service, or

that the circumstances in which the programme would be . . . so included would be such that racial hatred would be likely to be stirred up.

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—

that a programme involving the use of the offending material would be included in a programme service, or

that the circumstances in which a programme involving the use of the offending material would be . . . so included, or in which a programme . . . so included would involve the use of the offending material, would be such that racial hatred would be likely to be stirred up.

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.

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Section 22: Broadcasting or including programme in cable programme service.

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