Ideas have consequences, and harmful ideas produce harmful outcomes—sometimes for individuals, sometimes for entire societies. That’s the logic behind a new law in the Czech Republic that will make it illegal to spread communist propaganda. And given the history of the 20th century, it’s not difficult to see why a country would take that step.
Earlier this year, the president of the Czech Republic signed an amendment to the criminal code that criminalises the promotion of communist ideology, placing it on the same legal level as the promotion of Nazi ideology.
Communism has been associated with mass repression and deaths commonly estimated at more than 100 million worldwide, and its prevalence in Western institutions today makes it a far greater threat than anything else we’re told to fear.
The revised legislation, signed by President Petr Pavel, allows judges to impose prison sentences of up to five years on anyone who “establishes, supports, or promotes Nazi, communist, or other movements which demonstrably aim to suppress human rights and freedoms or incite racial, ethnic, national, religious, or class-based hatred.”
The amendment follows calls from several Czech institutions, including the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, to resolve what they saw as an imbalance in existing law.
The move also highlights the fact that governments that pass legislation against movements hostile to human rights also need a clear standard for determining what is good and what is harmful.
Without a defining framework, any judgment about “movements which demonstrably aim to suppress human rights and freedoms” risks becoming arbitrary, shaped only by those who hold power.
To consistently call something objectively wrong, a government must be able to appeal to an objective standard that the action violates. Without that, you risk ending up like Australia, which has spent years labelling elements of Christian theology as “hateful,” and is now proposing a “hate registry” for those found guilty of so-called “hate crimes.”
The new laws in the Czech Republic will come into effect on January 1, 2026.
