[2007] EWHC 2785 (Admin)

The magistrates court had been entitled to refuse to issue summonses in a private prosecution for blasphemous libel arising out of the theatrical production and television broadcast of "Jerry Springer: the Opera" where prosecution was prevented by the Theatres Act 1968 s.2(4)and the Broadcasting Act 1990 Sch.15 para.6, and a necessary element of the offence, the endangerment of the fabric of society causing civil strife, was not established.

DC (Hughes LJ, Collins J)

05/12/2007