How to Evaluate Caricatures Infringing Religious Sensibility?

Abstract

How far does freedom of expression extend? Should religious communities be protected from verbal attacks, and if so, when and to what extent? These questions are popular topics in legal literature, and recently they appear regularly in Hungarian jurisprudence, too. This paper chooses a new approach in a way that it assesses religious sensitivity based on statistical aspects, i.e. based on a questionnaire survey. It seeks an answer to the extent to which people belonging to and not belonging to different communities consider a caricature offensive, based on a selected legal case. It also examines whether religious affiliation, age and regularity of religious practice are important in determining whether the caricature is offensive. In addition to the statistical approach, the study, based on the case law developed by the Constitutional Court of Hungary in recent years, examines the aspects according to which the conflict between the freedom of expression and the protection of the religious community can be resolved.