South Africa South African journalists fear that in the climate of ruling party hostility towards the press the authorities could be tempted to try to curb the critical press with recourse to similar abuse of the criminal defamation law. There are also fears that the Bill will stifle artistic expression, media analysis and critique of public figures, cartoons and other forms of political satire. It also opens opportunities to equate certain forms of expression to offences in terms of so-called “insult laws”, an offshoot of criminal defamation laws. “By means of any communication whatsoever…” A key component of hate speech as defined in the Bill is an expression by any per-son who intentionally “by means of any communication whatsoever …. communi-cates in a manner that advocates hatred towards any other person or group of per-sons or is threatening, abusive or insulting towards any other person or group of persons…. and which demonstrates a clear intention …. to incite others to harm any person or group of persons whether or not such person or group of persons is harmed, or stir up violence against, or bring into contempt or ridicule, any person or group of persons.” The grounds on which “advocates” is based, relate to 17 human characteristics, including race, gender, sex, which includes intersex, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, religion, belief, culture, language, birth, disability, HIV status, na-tionality, gender identity, albinism or occupation or trade. The concern here is that the characteristics are defined extremely broadly and encompass practically any conduct and extend far beyond the four characteristics stated in the Constitution. In addition to oral, written, illustrative, electronic and data communication, it extends “without any limitation” to “any gesture”, “display”, “expression”, “visual or other de-scriptive matter” and “representation or reference”. These categories of hate speech extend to virtually any characteristic or activity of people. One of the dangers foreseen is the temptation it holds out for the authorities, including police officers and prosecutors, to base charges on almost any human emotion as expressed by facial or bodily expression or innuendo. Among the characteristics is the new category called “intersex”, defined as a congenital sexual differentiation which is atypical to whatever degree – whatever that may mean. So This is Democracy? 2016 81