Coming Attractions

Another reason to be wary of hate speech laws:

A man in Kazakhstan has been sentenced to three years in prison for insulting Vladimir Putin, reports suggest.

Sanat Dosov, a businessman and activist, was found guilty of breaching a Kazahk law that bans the incitement of “national hatred” and will now have to serve his sentence in a penal colony.

Dosov is alleged to have posted negative comments about Mr Putin on social media, including one in which he shared an image showing the face of the Russian president alongside those of former communist leaders Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin. He also called Mr Putin a “fascist” and “terrorist” and said he was “ruining” Russia.

Under Kazakh law, it is illegal to incite “social, national, generic, racial, class, or religious hatred” or insult “the national honour and dignity of religious feelings of citizens”. The law – Article 174 – has been criticised for being dangerously vague and in recent months has been used by state officials to imprison critics.

Considering the thin-skinned would-be dictator who's about to become president of the US, we can be glad the whole "hate speech" thing never really caught on here.

Via Joe.My.God.