JK Rowling challenges Scotland’s new hate crime law

Hurting someone’s feelings “cannot be a criminal offence”, says former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger. His comments come after JK Rowling challenged Scotland’s new hate crime law in a series of social media posts. “Of course, JK Rowling should be able to say ‘I believe there are two sexes’,” Mr Kroger told Sky News host Paul Murray. “She’s not inciting hatred, she’s not inciting violence, she’s expressing an opinion. “An Islamic preacher who gets up in a mosque and says ‘death to Jews’ basically that crosses the line, that’s hate speech, that’s incitement of violence, that should be criminalised. “But hurting someone’s feelings cannot be a criminal offence otherwise all free speech dies in Western democracies.”