Campaigners urge UK ministers to make music lyrics inadmissible in court

Campaigners are urging ministers to change the law so that music lyrics cannot be used as evidence in court, a move they say would stop a practice that disproportionately affects young black men and criminalises creativity. At present, police can present lyrics written by defendants and flag an appearance in the background of a music video as evidence of gang affiliation or involvement in criminality.

The groups want an amendment to the victims and courts bill to bar police from using lyrics as evidence except when they are “literal, rather than figurative or fictional”. The amendment, tabled by Baroness Shami Chakrabarti with support from Baroness Doreen Lawrence, is due to be debated in the Lords this week.

Chakrabarti said: “We’re in a ridiculous position at present where somebody’s musical taste is somehow probative of their criminal intent. It is like saying that my love of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather makes me a mobster.

United Kingdom

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