Journalism is not a crime

My few words at the Bristol Palestine Rally on Friday 6 September at which we were treated to some powerful speeches and poems.

The police, possibly aided and abetted by other forces, raided the home of journalist Sarah Wilkinson last week. Days earlier journalist Richard Medhurst was arrested as he stepped off a plane at Heathrow. And we still don’t know what alleged crime they are supposed to have committed. But we do know that the raids were connected to their advocacy of the plight of Palestinians.

I say ‘possibly aided and abetted by other forces’ because Sarah reported that her raiders included a group of balaclava-wearing heavies with no identifying names or numbers. As with Richard the police took away all Sarah’s journalistic tools including all electrical devices. They ransacked her house and she claims they stole cash and her passport which appear to be missing from her home but do not appear on the property dockets issued by the police.  She also describes finding that her mother’s ashes had been scattered in her attic in a nauseating act of desecration.

Of course such raids are not new. Journalists have had to contend with them whenever they get closer to facts than is thought healthy by those in power. At a time of industrial unrest in the 1970s my London flat was raided, and during ‘The Troubles’, as an Irishman I was stopped almost every time I left or returned to the country. 

In the 1980s, after incendiary devices claimed by the Animal Abused Society went off locally, the home of another Bristol NUJ member was subjected to similar treatment just because he was writing authoritative stories about the Animal Liberation Front.

What makes these assaults on Richard and Sarah so egregious is that they relate to coverage of the genocide in Gaza. Anti-terror laws are being used against journalists just because they are reporting or repeating reports of war crimes committed with the complicity of the UK government. 

In my view that complicity will not end until arms sales to Israel stop, and the British government takes deliberate steps to establish a ceasefire, provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and achieve the release of the hostages. 

The arrest and detention of Richard Medhurst on arrival at London Airport on 15 August, and the raid on Sarah’s house and her arrest on 29 August were conducted under the terms Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. 

Section12 makes it a crime to invite support for a proscribed organisation, or even express an opinion or belief that can be interpreted as supportive of a proscribed organisation. Interpreted by whom? This is a pretty broad net with which to catch anyone reporting about the hideous events happening in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel or Lebanon. 

It is a journalist’s job to verify facts, but when I made the foolish mistake of trying to contact Richard and Sarah, it hit me that under their bail terms they cannot have electronic devices while police scour their files for evidence against them. They are effectively banned from working as journalists.

The National Union Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists have issued statements in support of the rights of journalists and activists. Both General Secretaries have written to Matt Jukes, the UK Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, expressing concern about the misuse of police powers. Michelle Stanistreet, of the NUJ and the IFJ’s Anthony Bellanger say this use of terrorism legislation is likely to have a chilling effect of journalists worldwide in fear of arrests by UK authorities simply for doing their job. 

“Both the NUJ and the IFJ are shocked at the increased use of terrorism legislation by the British police in this manner.” they say. “Journalism is not a crime. Powers contained in anti-terror legislation must be deployed proportionately – not wielded against journalists in ways that inevitably stifle press freedom.”

A colleague recently asked me if the same draconian measures could be applied against anyone reposting news items and interviews from Gaza or the Occupied West Bank. The answer is – who knows? 

It is a journalist’s duty to protect confidential sources. These arrests and interrogations – demanding information about their sources  – raise scary questions about what the government is allowing to happen and why. What possible use is it to the British police to know the location of Sarah’s contacts? Is the influence of the Zionist lobby so strong that we are no longer allowed think for ourselves; to show solidarity with the victims in the conflict; to receive and impart information about them? Does it mean that we are all the firing line?

The sudden police intervention in arrangements for tomorrow’s Palestine rally in London adds another stack of questions about what is going on.

We must not let them stop our solidarity with the people of Palestine, and our demands for an end to the occupation and the release the Israeli hostages. 

Nor to our insistence that JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME.