All cases

Filtered by: Defamation

Christian artist banned from her own exhibition after expressing concerns about puberty blockers

March 18, 2024, United Kingdom

Victoria Culf, a Christian artist, was reported to police and banned from her own exhibition after telling a Watford council worker, back in June 2023, that due to her Christian world view and as a mother she didn’t think children should transition. She is now taking legal action.

Street wall Displays insults and Hateful Messages Against Christians

May 2, 2023, Germany

A German man who was doing a bicycle tour around the Tollensee Sea in Germany, near Neubrandenburg, came across a wall displaying several hateful or disrespectful messages and insults almost entirely against Christians or Catholic Christians. He posted a picture of the display on his facebook page and informed the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians. Some of the posters on the wall say "F**k off Vatican", "Good that theologians are disappearing on their own", "Catholics are sh*t", among other things.

UPDATE: Christian Mayoral Candidate Wins Legal Case After Being Fired For alleged "Hate Speech"

April 30, 2023, United Kingdom

In 2022, Maureen Martin, who was campaigning to become a mayor in London was sacked by her housing association employer for stating publicly that she believed in marriage between men and women. She was accused of gross misconduct for leading a "discriminatory" campaign. In April 2023, she won substantial damages following a legal challenge against her dismissal by the London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q). She was supported by the NGO Christian Concern.

Belgian Pastor Publicly Defamed and Church Vandalized

April 9, 2023, Belgium

On the 9th of April, at night, unknown people wrote with white paint "Pa Pedophil" (paedophile pastor) on the evangelical Church of Jemelle. Pastor Grégory Zieleniec received a hateful letter in his mailbox "pedophil en liberté. Il s'agit du pasteur grégory zieleniec" (Free paedophile. This is Pastor Gregory Zieleniec). The Pastor has filed a complaint for insult, vandalism and defamation.

Legal Proceedings Opened For Posters in San Sebastian Insulting Catholics

March 21, 2023, Spain

"If you abort now, what are we going to f**k in 5 or 6 years?" This is what was depicted in the posters that appeared in March in several bus shelters in San Sebastián, Spain. Apart from the hateful sentence that attacks religious feelings and discriminates Catholics, the posters included the image of an unborn child and the logo of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. The Organisation "Abogados Cristianos" filed a complaint regarding the events and now the courts have asked the Ertaintza (Basque Police) to investigate the authorship of the posters.

Norwegian Christian Prayer channel Blocked by YouTube

November 8, 2022, Norway

CNE News reports that YouTube has banned a Norwegian prayer channel called "Kanal 10 'We pray for you'" for allegedly violating the social media guidelines under the category of "online spam, deceptive practices and fraud." Øyvind Rygg, the general manager of Kanal 10, says there are also no economic interests in the program. "We were told last week Monday that if we continued to broadcast the prayer program, YouTube would block us. That means that they are ending our entire channel on YouTube", told Rygg to Dagen.

Anti-Catholic posters pasted on several churches in Gdansk in an anti-church action

October 16, 2022, Poland

On the night of October 16-17, 2022, an organized group hung posters targeting the Catholic Church on the parish grounds of the Church of Our Lady Queen of the Polish Crown in Gdansk. That night, the posters were hung on sixteen buildings and gates of establishments belonging to the Catholic Church. Posters with the same content and graphics were hung on all the facilities: "They all knew and did nothing! The entire clergy is guilty of covering up paedophilia in the Church! Disgrace! We remember! We will hold them accountable!".

Christian Doctor Faced Pressure After Offering Prayer to Patients

October 9, 2022, United Kingdom

In May 2019, Dr. Richard Scott faced an investigation by the NHS England (National Health Service) after several complaints were made about him offering prayer to patients, as he discussed this practice during a BBC Radio 4 interview. Dr. Scott faced an investigation to see if he was fit for practice, but the case has now been settled between Dr. Scott and the NHS, as reported on the news at the beginning of October. He has agreed to attend a course about professional boundaries and at the same time, with no admittance of wrongdoing.

Fr. Bernard Considered a "Risk to Children" by Church of England for Stating Biblical Teachings

September 4, 2022, United Kingdom

Rev Dr. Bernard Randall is a Christian chaplain who was reported to a terrorist watchdog by the school he worked at, after giving a sermon addressing the new LGBT Guidelines and telling his pupils it was ok to make up their own minds, as long as they remain respectful towards other's opinions. He is now facing a high-profile Employment Tribunal hearing and has even been blacklisted as a safeguarding risk to children by the Church of England (CofE). Dr. Randall says he was interrogated and told that refusing to capitulate to the allegation and denying his beliefs made him a risk. The diocese safeguarding team concluded ‘the Church itself is a risk factor.’

Canada: 260% Rise in anti-Catholic Hate Crimes, but no Media Coverage

August 3, 2022, Canada

The Canadian police released the hate crime data for 2021 on the 3rd of August, showing an alarming rise in anti-religious hate crimes: from 530 cases in 2020 to 884 in 2021. Anti-Catholic hate crimes rose 260%: while there were 43 cases in 2020, it rose to 155 in 2021. Catholics were the second most target group after Jews. Main News Broadcasters reported on these worrying numbers, but although Anti-Catholic motives were the second most targeted religious group and showed the highest rise among all categories, the media only used examples from other groups.

Mayoral Candidate Fired for Voicing Christian Beliefs

July 18, 2022, United Kingdom

A Christian mayoral candidate for Lewisham, Maureen Martin, has launched legal action after being sacked for her statement on Christian beliefs about marriage in her election manifesto. She was dismissed by her housing association employer L&Q for "gross misconduct" following three complaints of "hate speech" against her, as she expressed her belief that a marriage between a man and a woman was a "fundamental building block in society" and the "safest environment to raise a child".

Spain: Bishop called Homophobic and Insulted for Defending Life and Family

June 5, 2022, Spain

Bishop Santiago Gómez Sierra of Huelva spoke in a Mass on Pentecost Sunday and reminded Catholics of the importance of upholding the values of life and family when they vote in the upcoming election. He said that he was not trying to enforce anything but rather encourage "moral principles" that "should be above the different party strategies because they are issues required by reason, natural law, and true humanism.” For this speech, he was accused by left-leaning media and politicians of being homophobic and attacking "rights won by the left."

Books with Anti-Catholic Language Distributed by Castellon City Council

May 31, 2022, Spain

A lawsuit filed in October 2021 by the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers to remove books with anti-Catholic language has been dismissed. In the mentioned books, it is possible to find statements such as "The bishop gets it in the ass", "Hookers in the Vatican" and "Allah is not great and Jesus does not love us". The lawsuit called for the reiteration of 32 LGTBI-themed books distributed to 12 public institutes of Castellón and in the center of minors Pi Gros. The books were distributed by the City Council. The Contentious-Administrative Court 1 of Castellón dismissed the case. The Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers said they will appeal the judicial decision before the Superior Court of Justice, on the grounds that, in their perspective, "these books violate fundamental rights and incite hatred against all religions".

Statue of Virgin Mary destroyed and anti-Christian Threats in Madrid

May 16, 2022, Spain

During the night of 15 to 16 May, unknown perpetrators destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary, located in the garden of the house of the Heralds of the Gospel in Sevilla la Nueva, also causing other considerable damages to the property. They insulted and threatened the Heralds, cut off the electricity, and damaged other infrastructures on the property.

Pro-Life Catholics Praying Outside Abortion Facilities Faced Abuse

April 2, 2022, Spain

On the 2nd of April, young people and families were harassed by activists and feminists, while praying outside the Askabide abortion clinic in San Sebastian. They were praying the rosary on their knees, with a megaphone, under the motto "praying is not a crime" and carried a cross and an image of the Virgin. Tensions started to build up as protesters began harassing, censoring, and insulting the pro-life group. The police from Ertzaintza had to intervene in order to prevent attacks against the people praying.

Signatories of Anti-Conversion Therapy Letter in England Face Discrimination

March 14, 2022, United Kingdom

Evangelical ministers have faced a severe backlash after signing a letter to Liz Truss which expresses their opposition to the governments upcoming conversion therapy ban. Consequentially, they have had to take down the list of signatures which was published on the Ministers' Consultation Response website for fear of more acts of discrimination happening. It had collected 5,000 signatures from ministers and church leaders.

Feminists Deface Church in Savoy

March 8, 2022, Italy

On March 8th, the façade of the Santissima Annunziata church in Turin, was defaced with anti - Christian graffiti by feminists during National Women's Day. The floor and steps were covered with purple paint that condemned the "patriarchy" of the church. This act showed an apparent ignorance to the role Christianity has played to improve the rights of women.

Pastors Challenge Burgas Government over Discrimination to Non-Eastern-Orthodox Christians

December 22, 2021, Bulgaria

Pastor Tochev and Pastor Kiryakov in Burgas, have challenged the local government's campaign to label all non-Eastern Orthodox Christian groups as sects and turn children against them at school. The case goes all the way back to 2008 when the City council of Burgas wrote a letter notifying the schools of the new policy and these two pastors were shocked by the content. Now, there case is being heard at the European court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Pro-life Activist Faced a Hate Campaign on Social Media

October 6, 2021, Spain

Elsa Almeda, an 18-year-old with ties to the VOX political party in Spain, received numerous attacks for expressing her pro-life views on a Spanish television program Tevecat that provides a space for young people with different ideologies to debate current topics. The discussion was around abortion which she likened to murder, an opinion that is based on her Christian values. For this, she received several threats and parts of her speech where quoted completely out of context with the intent of misrepresenting her views and to paint her in a bad light.

Street Preacher Arrested for Alleged Hate Speech

August 14, 2021, United Kingdom

Street preacher Ryan Williamson from Loughbrickland was arrested for alleged hate speech, while preaching in Larne on 10 August. Subsequently, MP Mr. Wilson expressed on social media that “police probably didn’t handle this very well”, for there is video footage of Williamson preaching and his arrest circulating on social media. Williamson was released 30 minutes later. However, the police are being harshly criticised. Williams stated to have received much support from the local community.