n. the federal crime of advocating insurrection against the government or supporting an enemy of the nation in time of war, through speeches, publications and organizations. Rioting usually involves the actual conspiracy to disrupt the legal functioning of government and goes beyond expressing an opinion or protesting government policies. Sedition is a lesser crime than “treason,” which requires actual treason from the government or “espionage.” Espionage involves spying on the government, exchanging state secrets (especially military secrets) to another country (even a friendly nation), or sabotaging government facilities, equipment, or suppliers, such as an aircraft factory. During the United States` participation in World War II (1941-1945), several leaders of the German-American League, a pro-Nazi organization, were tried and convicted of sedition for actively disrupting the war effort. Because freedom of speech, press and assembly are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and because treason and espionage can be charged with overt acts against the security of the nation, accusations of sedition are rare. After American independence, sedition quickly became a controversial topic again. In 1798, a Federalist government led by John Adams feared that the ideas of the French Revolution, which were radical to many Americans at the time, would infiltrate the new republic and perhaps even lead to its untimely demise. To prevent this, he and a federal Congress passed the Aliens and Sedition Acts, which stated: “If persons unlawfully associate or conspire with intent to oppose one or more actions of the Government of the United States directed or intended to be directed by the competent authority, or to impede the enforcement of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or inhibit any person who holds a place or function in or under the Government of the United States from assuming, fulfilling, or carrying out its trust or duty, and if one or more persons, with intent. He is convicted of a serious offence. The Democratic-Republican administration of Thomas Jefferson, which defeated Adams and the Federalist Party in the 1800 election, repealed the laws.
Insurrection is the illegal act of inciting resistance or rebellion against the government in power. This is what the southern states did at the beginning of the civil war. On 17 August 2016, Amnesty International India was charged by Bengaluru police with “sedition” and “inciting enmity”. A complaint was filed by ABVP, an Indian student organization affiliated with Nationalists RSS. In September 2018, Divya Spandana, head of the Social Media Congress, was arrested on sedition charges for calling Narendra Modi, India`s prime minister, a thief. [16] On January 13, 2019, Delhi police on Monday filed charges against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNUSU) Students` Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a 2016 sedition case. [17] Laura Berg, a nurse at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in New Mexico, was investigated for sedition in September 2005[57] after writing a letter[58][59] to the editor of a local newspaper accusing several national leaders of criminal negligence.
Although their action was later deemed unwarranted by the Director of Veterans Affairs, local human resources staff took the initiative to request an FBI investigation. Ms. Berg was represented by the ACLU. [60] The charges were dropped in 2006. [61] The last charge of sedition in the United Kingdom was in 1972, when three people were charged with seditious conspiracy and seditious words for attempting to recruit people to travel to Northern Ireland to fight in support of the Republicans. The charges of seditious conspiracy were dropped, but the men were given suspended sentences for seditious words and for violations of the Public Order Act 1936. [43] “Riot.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sedition. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
The Offences Against the State Act 1939 created the offences of producing, distributing and possessing a “seditious document”. [27] [28] [29] The CRA suggests that “sedition”, which is not defined by the Constitution, could be implicitly defined as such by the definition of a “seditious document” in the 1939 Act:[30] Nglish: Translation of Riot for Spanish Speakers In the first sedition trial in New Zealand in decades, Tim Selwyn was convicted of sedition on 8 June 2006 (section 83 of the Crimes Act 1961). Shortly thereafter, in September 2006, New Zealand police filed a sedition complaint against a Rotorua youth who was also charged with death threats. [35] Police withdrew the sedition charge when the youth agreed to plead guilty to the other charge. [36] On January 10, 2019, a sedition case was registered against the famous Cambridge academic and Assamese intellectual Dr. Hiren Gohain and 2 others for their remarks against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Dr Gohain, 80, called the move a “desperate attempt by a cornered government”. [18] Article 23 of the Basic Law requires the MSAR to enact laws prohibiting any act of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against the Central People`s Government of the People`s Republic of China. [9] The National Security (Legislation) Bill was introduced in early 2003 to replace existing treason and sedition laws and introduce new laws to prohibit secessionist and subversive acts and the theft of state secrets, and to prohibit political organizations from establishing contacts abroad. The bill was suspended after massive public opposition.
Incitement is a legal term in Germany and some Nordic countries. It is sometimes loosely translated as sedition,[65] although the law prohibits incitement to hatred against any part of the population, such as a particular race or religion. Rioting is the rebellious discourse and encouragement that can lead to a mutiny and can be accused as a crime such as treason. The Aliens and Sedition Acts, passed in the late 1700s, were challenged by none other than Thomas Jefferson as a violation of Americans` right to free speech. The Incitement Act tacitly expired a few years later, but was essentially replaced in the early 1900s by the so-called Espionage Act, which was also later repealed.