Britain’s authoritarian spiral threatens press freedom

As Western liberal democracies crack down on journalists and activists, CLAUDIA WEBBE urges resistance against the Labour government’s part in this slide towards Saudi-style repression.

KEIR STARMER’S authoritarian inclinations, highlighted a year ago by Peter Oborne and Richard Sanders, have become increasingly evident since his efforts to purge the left from the Labour Party.

These tendencies appear to be steering Britain toward a trajectory reminiscent of totalitarian and oppressive regimes, such as Saudi Arabia. This shift is marked by assaults on freedom of speech and journalistic freedom, both of which are essential to a functioning democracy and a healthy society.

In the first two months of a new Labour government, there appears to be a marked escalation in what was already a government war on journalists and on the right to protest, particularly relating to the environment and climate emergency and above all to Gaza.

In opposition in 2021, the majority of Labour MPs abstained on anti-protest laws, an indication that they were whipped to do so, then changed course after the scandal of the Metropolitan Police arrest of women protesting at Clapham Common against the murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer.

Labour peers were whipped to abstain last year on a Lords vote to protect British journalists from state persecution under the National Security Bill. Now, in office, arguably Starmer’s Labour government appears to be engaged in a war on media freedom and the public’s right to know and dissent.

Just in August, journalist Richard Medhurst was arrested on the plane as he arrived in Britain. In video interviews he has said that he was held for almost 24 hours under anti-terrorist legislation, denied access to legal representation and even to water and had all his electronic devices seized, including even a set of wired headphones.

He was then charged with holding or expressing an opinion supportive of a proscribed organisation, presumably because of his reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza and of Palestinian resistance.

Medhurst was far from the first journalist to be targeted in this way. In May last year, Kit Klarenberg was arrested in the same way at Luton airport and had his devices seized.

Five months later, former diplomat turned author, journalist and pro-Assange activist Craig Murray was detained as he re-entered Britain after speaking at a Free Assange event in Iceland. Last December, writer and anti-genocide campaigner Tony Greenstein was arrested by terror police in Brighton — he wrote that the arrest was for just one post on X — and was deprived of his electronics for months.

But if anyone thought that a change of government was going to lead to a reversal of the worrying pattern of repression and abuse of legislation, they would have been completely wrong. On the contrary, it can be argued that the use of terrorism laws to terrorise journalism and dissent have accelerated.

In what many might describe as the most egregious and shocking example, just nine days after Medhurst’s airport arrest, around a dozen terror police invaded the home of journalist and anti-genocide activist Sarah Wilkinson early in the morning.

She said, during an interview with political commentator Crispin Flintoff after the arrest, that the police refused to show their warrant, handcuffed her, manhandled her son and trashed her house, then hid important documents and devices, including bank cards hidden in the attic and identity cards in the mattress on which she slept, before leaving with items that they did not receipt to her.

Even more worrying, she reported that they tried to force her to disclose the identities of sources in Palestine that presumably Britain could then have shared with Israeli intelligence.

And in another escalation compared to the treatment of Medhurst, Wilkinson said she was bailed under draconian and inhumane conditions as well as suffering the removal of her devices.

A journalist and international activist living in a remote Shropshire village, Wilkinson stated that she was banned from accessing the internet or even using any kind of electronic device. This deprived her not only of the ability to reach family or international friends and professional contacts — or to earn her living by writing.

She explained that for more than a week, until the bail conditions were lifted after her lawyers threatened action, they left her unable to shop online, order medications for the Crohn’s disease she suffers from, or phone her lawyer.

It was only by good fortune that her adult son was staying with her at the time the police invaded, or else she would not have been able to let him or anyone else know what had happened to her.

She said in a second interview at the weekend that her lawyers are confident there is no case against her to lead to a trial, but that the bail conditions themselves were a form of sentence, disruption and repression: “The bail is the jail.”

This abuse is not limited to journalists. Leicester anti-genocide activist Majid Freeman was arrested in July, not even a week after the general election, using the same tactic, for alleged social media comments.

As human rights group Cage put it: “Freeman’s arrest is part of the general policy of repression of Palestinian solidarity in Britain, it is also the latest episode of the local establishment specifically targeting him for his community activism … Freeman’s viral video of Jon Ashworth, a senior ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, proved instrumental to Ashworth losing his seat in Leicester South in the recent general election.”

The viral video itself saw Ashworth being questioned about the genocide in Gaza. Palestine Action co-founder Richard Barnard was charged under the Terrorism Act, on the same day as Wilkinson’s arrest, with “expressing an opinion or belief in support of a proscribed organisation” over two speeches at anti-genocide rallies, at least one of which was reportedly not even in Britain.

Meanwhile, according to Middle East Eye’s reporting, 10 members of the group who took part in an action against an Elbit Systems weapons factory were detained under terror legislation, allowing police to exploit the legislation’s draconian powers before they were eventually charged with non-terror offences.

The Terrorism Act, long condemned by human rights groups and legal experts as deeply flawed for its “thought crime” provisions against simply holding an opinion and its breach of Britain’s human rights obligations, is being abused, they argue, to intimidate and restrict journalism and freedom of speech.

Its provisions deny those detained the right to legal advice or to refuse to answer questions — and makes refusal to hand over device passwords a criminal offence.

Particularly in the case of journalists, who have a professional obligation to protect sources, this is an inexcusable use of powers meant to be used when there is an immediate threat to life, to intrude upon journalistic privilege, chill dissent and pressure journalists and others to “self-censor” for fear of legal pursuit.

This assault on journalism and freedom of expression is chillingly reminiscent of the mistreatment meted out by totalitarian states to those who dare dissent, or even to report on the actions of the state.

Reporters Without Borders says that the number of journalists in jail in Saudi Arabia has tripled since 2017, and that journalists who report critically on any of the country’s actions, for example, its war on Yemen or its treatment of women, are treated as traitors. Ordinary citizens are pursued — two Saudi women, Nourah al-Qahtani and Salma al-Shehab, were jailed for 45 years and 34 years respectively for calling for reform on social media.

Human rights organisation Euro-Med Monitor, in its recent report Deadly Profession, states that journalism is one of the most dangerous professions in the entire Middle East/north Africa regions and the UN commissioner for human rights has noted that journalists in the Gulf “face extreme risks … frequently targeted and harassed, and can even be subjected to violence for their work.”

But the trend of persecution of journalists is not only seen in the Middle East. Germany’s secret services are on record monitoring pro-Palestinian media. German journalist Alina Lipp was told she faces three years in prison if she returns to Germany, because of her reporting on the situation in Ukraine, particularly the Donbass region.

In July, France used its own anti-terror legislation to arrest political scientist and expert on Gaza and Islamophobia Francois Burgat for supposed “advocacy of terrorism,” for supporting the people of Gaza against genocide. Palestinian activist Mariam Abudaqa was arrested while on a speaking tour and deported, amid France’s clampdown on pro-Palestinian protests.

The situation in Britain, France, Germany and other Western nations may not yet be as severe as in places like Saudi Arabia, but the direction of travel is deeply concerning and attacks our democracy and the public’s right to know.

In April, Amnesty International accused Britain of “deliberately destabilising human rights internationally.” In July, shortly after he became prime minister, Human Rights Watch told Starmer that he needed to “arrest Britain’s slide into authoritarianism.”

Instead, it appears under Prime Minster Starmer, the state is set on arresting journalists and activists for reporting news and standing against genocide.

Claudia Webbe is the former member of Parliament for Leicester East (2019-24). You can follow her at www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE and twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe.

SOURCE:
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britains-authoritarian-spiral-threatens-press-freedom