Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Paul Gascoigne in court...for a joke?!

Here's a story which I'm amazed hasn't received more coverage:

http://metro.co.uk/2016/06/04/paul-gascoigne-charged-over-racial-joke-5923590/

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/04/paul-gascoigne-court-alleged-racist-joke-abuse-wolverhampton-magistrates-court

Former footballer Paul Gascoigne is to be formally charged for a ‘joke’ he made during a show in Wolverhampton.
The former England midfielder remarked during ‘An Evening with Gazza’ that he couldn’t tell if a black security guard in a darkened corner of the stage was ‘smiling or not’.
The Crown Prosecution Service, who had initially decided not to prosecute Gascoigne, have now decided he is to be charged.

This just seems outrageous. You may dislike the "joke" and find it rude and even racist. But how on earth does it justify a prosecution?

I can only imagine the plaintiff is after a payout. If this is successful surely it opens the doors for every other comedian to be sued for something they say on stage.

This seems a bigger threat to free speech than anything I've seen recently as it involved the power of the state, and yet there seems to little discussion about it.