Sir, – Senator Lorraine Higgins of Labour gives three examples of threats she received (such as "I'll murder you with a hatchet in the face") and which she feels justify enactment of her Bill on criminalising harmful and malicious electronic communication ("New laws must tackle abusive, threatening trolls", Opinion & Analysis, July 23rd). All of her examples are already covered by section five of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, which criminalises threatening to kill or cause serious harm to another person.
The Bill is an understandable reaction from Senator Higgins, but unfortunately is woefully overbroad and vague, and nothing in the senator’s article provides sufficient justification for the further criminalisation of online communication. – Yours, etc,
RONAN FAHY,
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands.
Sir, – Senator Lorraine Higgins writes of her constituency in Galway East. I presume it isn’t trolling to point out that senators don’t have geographical constituencies in this jurisdiction. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN DINEEN, LLM
Clontarf, Dublin 3.