In Belgium, a Congolese student and a minority organisation sought to obtain a ban on the comic book Tintin in the Congo. A Brussels court rejected their claims. Despite this outcome, the reasoning of the court jeopardises free speech. As regards the applicants: offensive as the comic may be, their recourse to the law seems both misdirected and counterproductive.
BalkinJM (1999) Free speech and hostile environments. Columbia Law Review99: 2295–2305.
2.
BrowneKR (1991) Title VII as censorship: hostile-environment harassment and the First Amendment. Ohio State Law Journal52: 481–550.
3.
Commission for Racial Equality (2007) CRE Statement on the children’s book ‘Tintin in the Congo’. Press release, 12 July.
4.
CowanAL (2009) A library’s approach to books that offend. New York Times, 19 August.
5.
EetezonneW (2007) Parket voert vooronderzoek naar Congolese klacht over ‘Kuifje in Afrika’. De Morgen, 7 August.
6.
FarrM (2001) Tintin: The Complete Companion. London: John Murray.
7.
Fundamental Rights Agency (2011) Handbook on European Non-discrimination Law. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
8.
GerardJB (1993) The First Amendment in a hostile environment: a primer on free speech and sexual harassment. Notre Dame Law Review68: 1003–1035.
9.
McColganA (2007) Harassment. In: DSchiekLWaddingtonMBell (eds) Cases, Materials and Texts on National, Supranational and International Non-discrimination Law. Oxford: Hart, pp. 477–560.
MeyersM (2009) Free Tin Tin! Brooklyn Public Library made a big mistake when it put racist book in a locked room. New York Daily News, 22 August.
12.
SasportasV (2009) ‘Tintin au Congo’ menacé d’interdiction. Le Figaro, 18 September.
13.
SingerR (2012) Racist ‘Tintin in the Congo’ book remains on shelves following a Belgian judge’s ruling. Blouin Artinfo (international edition), 7 March.
14.
StrossenN (1995) The tensions between regulating workplace harassment and the First Amendment: no trump. Chicago-Kent Law Review71: 701–727.
15.
VaclavikK (2009) Damaging goods? Francophone children’s books in a postcolonial world. International Research in Children’s Literature2: 228–242.
16.
VolokhE (1992) Freedom of speech and workplace harassment. UCLA Law Review39: 1791–1862.
17.
VolokhE (1995) How harassment law restricts free speech. Rutgers Law Review47: 561–576.
18.
VrielinkJSottiauxS (2008) Banning sexism: how harassment law may threaten freedom of expression and undermine antidiscrimination policies. International Journal of Discrimination and the Law4: 263–271.
19.
VrielinkJ (2012) Silence is golden? Charting the intersections of speech and direct discrimination under EU discrimination law with a special focus on racial and religious discrimination in recruitment. In: KAlidadiM-CFobletsJVrielink (eds) A Test of Faith? Religious Diversity and Accommodation in the European Workplace. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 121–150.
