Letter: Heaven sent

YOUR report of the latest developments in the blasphemy law contained errors ("Celestial orgasm that went too far", 24 March). The Visions of Ecstasy video was denied a certificate not in 1987 but in 1989, and not "on the grounds of being blasphemous" but because it might be found blasphemous by a court. This was not "only the third blasphemy case this century". Between 1903 and 1921, there was an average of one a year.

The blasphemy law no longer includes the element of leading to a breach of the peace. Nor is there any difficulty about law defining religion. It has long regulated the registration of places of worship, and it could well do so in the proposed law against religious hatred. The accepted definition, involves belief in and reverence for a Supreme Being.

Nicolas Walter

Committee against Blasphemy Law, London N1