mortimer, oz & free speech

16 January 2009

"He stands, whether you like it or not, for freedom - freedom of expression."



The Rumpole novels aren't really our bag, but we doff our cap to the late John Mortimer, staunch defender of free speech, including the now infamous Oz trail. From the Times:

In the barrister Horace Rumpole, Mortimer created a character who occupies a treasured part of the national consciousness. Although fictional, Rumpole became an icon of English law. Enthusiastic about wine and Wordsworth, Mortimer's creation works dedicatedly for his clients and is never worried about career advancement. His dicta, including 'Never plead guilty!' and 'A person who is tired of crime is tired of life', became famous.

Not only did his writing capture the essential humanity of the legal system, Mortimer himself appeared in many key cases concerned with civil liberty and alleged obscenity, often encapsulating important points in a very direct and arresting way.

He was opposed to the incursions on freedom of expression that the state was apt to attempt in the 1960s and 1970s. "The attitude of censorship," he wrote, "depends on the assumption that there is a superior type of person qualified to tell the rest of us what it is good for us to read."

He noted, in the context of obscenity trials, that it was oddly anomalous that while murder was illegal it wasn't a crime to write about it, whereas sex was legal but to write about it could be a crime.

Further: More on the Oz trial at the British Library / Back issues of Richard Neville's Oz / Hippie Hippie Shake, the film of Oz [forthcoming, with Hugh Bonneville as John Mortimer] & The Trials of Oz [TV drama]