Defamation actions arising from the live-streaming of religious ceremonies are “likely to happen again”, Nick Park, executive director of Evangelical Alliance Ireland (EAI) has said.
His remarks follow a successful action by Warren Walsh who sued the Cornerstone Slieve Bloom Church in Tullamore, Co Offaly, for defamation arising from comments made by his daughter during a live-streamed Baptism ceremony there.
“If it happened once, it’s likely to happen again,” Mr Park said. “Churches would be perceived as easy targets.”
Mr Park, senior pastor at Solid Rock Church in Drogheda,said he has never live-streamed ceremonies from his church, mainly because of concerns about potentially faulty technology. “We pre-record and put them on YouTube or as podcasts,” he said.
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He felt evangelical churches, such as the hundreds represented by the EAI, are particularly vulnerable to legal actions in live-streaming situations because, during services, “people are encouraged to make contributions which are not scripted”.
He recalled how in 2016 he was called as a witness in a Belfast court case, where an evangelical pastor who said Islam was “satanic” and “spawned in hell” was charged with making “grossly offensive” remarks about the Muslim religion.
Belfast Magistrates Court ruled that Pastor James McConnell had made “offensive” comments but they did not reach the “high threshold” of being “grossly offensive”.
In May 2015, at Whitewall Metropolitan Tabernacle Church in north Belfast, Pastor McConnell preached that a “new evil had arisen” and there were “cells of Muslims right throughout Britain” similar to IRA cells of the past. His sermon was also streamed online.
He continued that “Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell,” adding that there was “powerful evidence that more and more Muslims are putting the Koran’s hatred of Christians and Jews alike into practice”.
He was investigated by the PSNI for engaging in hate crime, which led to his prosecution at Belfast Magistrates’ Court under the UK’s 2003 Communications Act.
He denied charges of improper use of a public electronic communications network, and causing a grossly offensive message to be sent by means of a public electronic communications network.
In the Tullamore case, the father concerned was awarded €14,400, with the Cornerstone Slieve Bloom Church deemed responsible “for 40 per cent of that”, Mr Park said.
In its general guidelines for using parish webcams, Ireland’s Catholic Church advises that “any behaviour which is discordant with the holiness of the Church or which might cause hurt and scandal to members of the faithful is inappropriate and should be avoided”.
It also advises that “there should be no live streaming in churches when there is no Mass or Liturgy taking place”.
A spokesman for the Church of Ireland was “not aware of any cases of this nature involving Church of Ireland parishes or our other ministries.”
It too has published guidelines for all parishes in relation to live streaming and recording of services, and on the use of social media and digital communications more generally.
These note “that legislation, including the law on defamation, applies to digital and online communication as much as it does to print communication.”
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) was “not aware of any similar circumstances affecting a PCI congregation,” a spokesman said. “The main questions that we are asked, however, is in regards to the use of video clips and worship music copyright,” he said.
