News
Legal challenge to Jerry Springer - The Opera
Article Published: 4th January 2008
At the beginning of 2007, Stephen Green, director of Christian Voice, sought to bring a private prosecution against the producer and the broadcaster of 'Jerry Springer - The Opera'. Mr Green argued that the depiction of God as a frail old man and Christ as an abusive and foul mouthed homosexual amounted to blasphemy and that the production and broadcasting of the play was therefore a criminal offence. The District Judge at the Magistrates Court refused to find that blasphemy had occurred. Mr Green applied for judicial review of this decision and in November 2007, the case was heard at the High Court. Once again, the case was dismissed. The reasons given for dismissal included the lack of any evidence that the production had endangered society as a whole by endangering the peace or depraving public morality. The judgment also said that the production was attacking the Jerry Springer chat show rather than Christianity.
In January 2008 Mr Green sought leave to appeal to the House of Lords for a review of the decisions made by the lower courts in the hope that they will rule that 'Jerry Springer - The Opera' was a blasphemous production.