Gardai are investigating after a complaint of blasphemy was made against Stephen Fry for his comments during an interview with Gay Byrne back in 2015.
The Irish Independent has reported that a member of the public made the complaint at Ennis Garda Station, and an investigation into the interview is now under way.
Stephen made comments about his beliefs on The Meaning of Life, which was hosted by veteran broadcaster Gay, and the complainant believes that Stephen’s comments were contrary to the Defamation Act 2009 and illegal.
The complainant said that “(he) told the Garda I wanted to report Fry for uttering blasphemy and RTE for publishing/broadcasting it and that (he) believed these were criminal offences under the Defamation Act 2009.”
However, the person insisted that he wasn’t personally offended by the comments, but that he “simply believed that the comments made by Fry on RTÉ were criminal blasphemy and that I was doing my civic duty by reporting a crime.”
During said interview, Stephen told that Gay that he believed God is “quite clearly a maniac, an utter maniac, totally selfish”.
“Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain? We have to spend our lives on our knees thanking him. What kind of god would do that?”
Under the Defamation Act of 2009, a person can be fined up to €25,000 per offense for making blasphemous comments. Meanwhile, Gardaí have said that they cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.
