Everything about Sedition totally explained
» This is about the law term. For other uses see Sedition (disambiguation)
Sedition is a term of
law which refers to covert conduct, such as
speech and
organization, that's deemed by the legal authority as tending toward
insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes
subversion of a
constitution and
incitement of discontent (or
resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are
seditious libel.
Because sedition is typically considered a subversive act, the overt acts that may be prosecutable under sedition laws vary from one legal code to another. Where those legal codes have a traceable history, there's also a record of the change of definition for what constituted sedition at certain points in history. This overview has served to develop a
sociological definition of sedition as well, within study of
persecution.
The difference between sedition and
treason consists primarily in the subjective ultimate object of the violation to the public
peace. Sedition doesn't consist of levying war against a government nor of adhering to its enemies, giving enemies aid, and giving enemies comfort. Nor does it consist, in most
representative democracies, of peaceful
protest against a government, nor of attempting to change the government by
democratic means (such as
direct democracy or
constitutional convention).
Put simply, sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the government in power. Treason is the violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or state and has to do with giving aid to enemies or levying war. Sedition is more about encouraging the people to rebel, where treason is actually betraying the country.
History
Sedition in its modern meaning first appeared in the
Elizabethan Era (c. 1590) as the "notion of inciting by words or writings disaffection towards the state or constituted authority". "Sedition complements treason and martial law: while treason controls primarily the privileged, ecclesiastical opponents, priests, and
Jesuits, as well as certain commoners; and martial law frightens commoners, sedition frightens intellectuals."
Australia
Australia's sedition laws were amended in
anti-terrorism legislation passed on
6 December 2005, updating definitions and increasing penalties.
In late 2006, the
Howard government proposed plans to amend Australia's
Crimes Act 1914, introducing laws that mean artists and writers may be jailed for up to seven years if their work was considered seditious or inspired sedition either deliberately or accidentally. Opponents of these laws have suggested that they could be used against legitimate dissent.
Over the past year, Australian attorney-general Philip Ruddock has rejected calls by two reports — from a Senate committee and the Australian Law Reform Commission — to limit the sedition provisions in the Anti-Terrorism Act 2005 by requiring proof of intention to cause disaffection or violence. He has also brushed aside recommendations to curtail new clauses outlawing “urging conduct” that “assists” an “organisation or country engaged in armed hostilities” against the Australian military.
The new laws, inserted into the legislation last December, allow for the criminalization of basic expressions of political opposition, including supporting resistance to Australian military interventions, such as those in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Asia-Pacific region.
Canada
During
World War II former
Mayor of
Montreal Camillien Houde campaigned against
conscription in
Canada. On
August 2,
1940, Houde publicly urged the men of
Quebec to ignore the
National Registration Act. Three days later, he was placed under
arrest by the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police on charges of sedition. After being found guilty, he was confined in
internment camps in
Petawawa,
Ontario and
Gagetown,
New Brunswick until 1944. Upon his release on
August 18,
1944, he was greeted by a cheering crowd of 50,000 Montrealers and won back his job as Montreal mayor in 1944's civic
election.
New Zealand
In
New Zealand's first sedition trial in decades,
Tim Selwyn was convicted of sedition (section 83 of the Crimes Act 1961) on
8 June 2006.
In September 2006, the New Zealand Police laid a sedition charge against a
Rotorua youth, Christopher Russell, 17, who was also charged with threatening to kill. The Police withdrew the sedition charge when Russell agreed to plead guilty on the other charge.
In March 2007, Mark Paul Deason, 32, manager of a tavern near the
University of Otago, was charged with seditious intent although he was later granted police diversion when he pleaded guilty to publishing a document which encourages public disorder Deason ran a promotion for his Tavern that offered 1 litre of beer for 1 litre petrol. At the end of the promotion, the prize would have been a couch soaked in the petrol. It is presumed the intent was for the couch to be burned — a popular university student prank. Police also applied for Deason's liquor license to be revoked.
Following a recommendation from the
New Zealand Law Commission, the New Zealand government announced on
7 May 2007 that the sedition law would be repealed. The
Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill was passed on
24 October 2007, and entered into force on
1 January 2008.
United States
There have been a number of attempts in the United States to regulate speech that has been deemed seditious. In 1798, President
John Adams signed into law the
Alien and Sedition Acts, the fourth of which, the
Sedition Act or "An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States" set out punishments of up to two years' imprisonment for "opposing or resisting any law of the United States" or writing or publishing "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the
President or
Congress (but specifically not the
Vice-President). The act was allowed to expire in 1801 after the election of
Thomas Jefferson, Vice President at the time of the Act's passage.
The
Espionage Act of 1917 may also be considered a sedition law of sorts, as section 3 made it a crime, punishable by 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000, to wilfully spread false news of the US military with an intent to disrupt their operations, to foment mutiny in the ranks, or obstruct recruiting. The act was amended in 1918 with the
Sedition Act, which expanded the purview of the Espionage Act to any statements made criticizing the government. The act was upheld in 1919 in
Schenck v. United States, but was repealed largely in 1921, leaving mostly laws forbidding espionage and allowing military
censorship of sensitive material.
In 1940, the Alien Registration Act or
Smith Act was passed, which made it a crime to advocate or teach the desirability of overthrowing the United States Government, or to be a member of any organization which does the same. It was often used against
Communist organizations. The act was invoked in three major trials, one of the
Socialist Worker's Party in
Minneapolis in 1941, resulting in 23 convictions, and again in 1944 in what became known as "The Great Sedition Trial", of pro-
Nazi figures which ended in a
mistrial. A series of trials of 140 leaders of the
Communist Party USA was also predicated upon the Smith Act beginning in 1949, and lasting until 1957. Although the
Supreme Court upheld the convictions of 11 CPUSA leaders in 1951, the court reversed itself in 1957 in
Yates v. United States by ruling that teaching an ideal, no matter how inimical that onlookers may view it to the United States, doesn't equal advocating or planning its implementation.
Although unused since at least 1961, the Smith Act remains US law.
Laura Berg, a
nurse at a
Dept of Veterans' Affairs hospital in
New Mexico was investigated for sedition in September 2005 after writing a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, criticizing the government, although this was by her human resources department, not the government. Ms Berg was represented by the
ACLU. Charges were dropped in 2006
(External Link
).
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