Free speech threatened as journalists treated like terrorists
Richard Medhurst (right) is one of several pro-Palestinian journalists facing terror charges. (Photo: Bonzo / Alamy)
The co-founder of a pro-Palestine campaign group will appear at Westminster magistrates court today charged with terrorist offences.
Richard Barnard of Palestine Action is a leading critic of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, which is now estimated to have killed more than 40,000 people.
He is accused of “expressing an opinion that is supportive of a proscribed organisation contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000”.
The charge follows an investigation into a demonstration held in Manchester last October after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel. He is also accused of encouraging or intending to encourage criminal damage.
Although Palestine Action has repeatedly broken into Israeli weapons factories in the UK, the terrorism charge against Barnard appears to relate exclusively to speeches he has made.
Barnard was charged on the day counter terrorism police, some wearing balaclavas, raided the house of Sarah Wilkinson, a prominent pro-Palestinian journalist, seized her phone, passport, and electronic equipment.
That was on August 29, at 7.30 in the morning. According to her son Jack, the police said she was under arrest for “content that she has posted online.” She described later how they handcuffed her and “literally ransacked the house”.
An urn in her attic was upturned, scattering her mother’s ashes. “My mother’s urn was desecrated”, she told the Crispin Flintoff Show. She was deprived of her medicine and released, hours later, that evening.
Asked why she was arrested, she said: “To silence people reporting on genocide…because I was connected to people in Gaza. To instil fear”. The police asked for phone numbers of her contacts in Gaza, she said.
‘Thought crimes’
Wilkinson, 61, has been an outspoken critic of Britain’s support for Israel. She regularly broadcast and posted news items and videos on the conflict in Gaza, and writes for MENA Uncensored.
Her bail conditions, since dropped, prevented her from reporting or commenting on the news, but she does not know what further action will be taken against her.
A few days earlier, on August 15, Richard Medhurst, an independent journalist who contributes to the Grayzone website, was arrested at Heathrow airport under the Terrorism Act 2000. He was questioned by police and held for some 15 hours.
The police were confused and appeared not to know what exactly he was arrested for, he said. He was asked about his religious belief, a question he described as weird since they had confiscated his crucifix.
He said he assumed that whoever was responsible for his arrest were upset by his reporting on Palestine.
Although he was released on unconditional bail, he has to go to a police station in three months. They might drop the charges or extend his bail. But he added: “I could be charged at any moment…it is hanging over your head”.
Whenever he opens his mouth, he said, he could be regarded as a terrorist, so he is under pressure to censor himself. The message was: “Just watch yourself; we can come after you with harder stuff”.
Audrey Cherryl Mogan, a barrister who has successfully defended Palestine Action members in court, told Declassified: “There have been several individuals charged with offences under the Terrorism Act, particularly sections 11 and 12, arising out of protests in support of Palestine.
“Many of these individuals have no previous convictions and have not been involved in criminality before. This follows the trajectory of increasingly more serious offences being levied at protestors over the last few years.
“Offences, particularly those alleging that people have encouraged support for proscribed organisations through the expression of opinions, where they have not actually referred to any proscribed organisation, are particularly worrying, as it ventures into the realm of thought crimes.”
Sinister development
Medhurst’s arrest is among a number of disturbing examples of how anti-terrorism laws are being increasingly used, seemingly with the backing of the new Labour government, to intimidate protesters against deadly Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
They are part of a sinister development that has serious implications for civil liberties and freedom of speech, yet it has been ignored by the mainstream media. It is as if you are not a member of the establishment media, you are a problem that “has to be dealt with”, said Medhurst.
He is a member of the National Union of Journalists and accredited to the UN. “The entire British press corps should be screaming”, he told Black Agenda Radio, but judging by the response of the mainstream media, it seemed as if journalists who are arrested are obviously seen to have deserved it.
Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 criminalises anyone who “invites support for a proscribed organisation” or “expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive” of such a group. Those arrested under the section say the threshold is so low that individuals could be arrested with no intention of doing anything they are charged with.
In the cases cited here it can be assumed to be supporting Hamas, whose political wing was proscribed by the then home secretary, Priti Patel, in 2021 after years of campaigning by the lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel.
Police have previously made a number of controversial arrests under the Terrorism Act, detaining Palestine Action members in Bristol for a week without charge.
Like Barnard, they have targeted factories in the UK belonging to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer.
Growing trend
Such cases seem to have become more common under Keir Starmer, although they are not entirely unprecedented.
In May 2023, Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg was arrested under the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act upon his return from Serbia and subjected to a lengthy interrogation at Luton airport.
A month earlier, 29-year-old Ernest Moret, a French publisher of Éditions la Fabrique, was arrested in London by counter terrorism officers.
He was detained at St Pancras station in April on his way to the London book fair under schedule 7, a more well known part of the Terrorism Act.
British detectives asked whether he had taken part in anti-government demonstrations in France and if he backed French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Moret’s mobile phone and laptop were also confiscated for several weeks, before being returned to him after police decided to take no further action.
The police also admitted downloading Moret’s sim card before returning his phone.
A year later, he was awarded “substantial” damages by the Metropolitan police, as new figures reveal thousands of foreign nationals have been stopped at UK ports under anti-terror laws.
These include David Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who wrote a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency.
Miranda was held for almost nine hours at Heathrow airport in 2013 under schedule 7.
The law applies specifically to airports, ports and border areas, and allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.
Miranda was released after all his electronic equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles, were confiscated.
‘Undemocratic’
The response of the Starmer government to protestors suggests that it will uphold the increasingly draconian laws introduced by its predecessor.
Earlier this year, the civil rights group, Liberty, won its case in the high court against former home secretary Suella Braverman’s anti-protest laws.
Braverman had lowered the threshold at which police could impose conditions on protest from “serious disruption” to “more than minor” disruption.
That change had been rejected by Parliament. The Conservative government appealed a high court decision shortly before it announced the general election.
The new home secretary, Labour’s Yvette Cooper, has backed the Conservative’s appeal. Liberty is now challenging her decision.
Akiko Hart, Liberty’s director, said, “This legislation is undemocratic, unconstitutional and unacceptable.”
Hundreds of people, notably the climate protester, Greta Thunberg, have been arrested or convicted under this law since it was introduced.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In recent weeks, journalists Sarah Wilkinson and Richard Medhurst, as well as Palestine Action co-founder Richard Barnard were all arrested under the the UK's Terrorism Act. Critics say it is a direct attack on the Palestine movement.
On August 29, 12-16 police officers, some of them from the UK’s counter-terrorism unit, arrested Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson, 61, under the Terrorism Act 2000, for content she had posted online.
The bail conditions, which included not being allowed to use any electronic devices or any form of public transportation, were dropped a week later. She has also returned to reporting via her social media accounts.
Wilkinson has been advocating for Palestine long before October 7, but over the past eleven months, the suppression of voices like hers in the UK has increased.
Other well-known figures such as freelance journalist Richard Medhurst and co-founder of Palestine Action Richard Barnard were also arrested last month under the Terrorism Act 2000.
What is the Terrorism Act?
The Terrorism Act 2000 is not new in the UK and has been used for over two decades. It is the centerpiece of counter-terrorism legislation that went into effect in 2001.
Since then, Amnesty International has issued several reports in which the organization has voiced its concerns surrounding the counter-terrorism legislation in the UK.
In a report published in January 2023, they express their concern about the definition of terrorism in section 1 of the act:
“In August 2015, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern that the UK had maintained the broadly formulated definition of terrorism in section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000 “that can include a politically motivated action which is designed to influence a government or international organization, despite significant concern…that the definition is ‘unduly restrictive of political expression’.”
The recent arrests of people opposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza could be an example of how the act is abused, Julia Hall, researcher on counter-terrorism and lawyer with Amnesty International, explained to Mondoweiss.
Hall says the use of the law has escalated since October last year and that this is very concerning, as it could have a “chilling effect.” “This means that the use of the Terrorism Act leaves people in a state where they are afraid of what they can say, and many people then choose to stay silent,” Hall said, speaking to Mondoweiss from the United States.
She explained that the use of the law is far from new. According to a 2017 Amnesty International report, the right to freedom of expression has been “under direct and sustained assault across Europe in recent years.”
Hall said that using the counter-terrorism laws on people who are opposing the genocide is “draconian, but it is not new: the tools have been in the drawer for two decades, and this is a regional issue.”
Now, the use of the Terrorism Act against protesters, activists, and journalists that oppose the illegal Israeli occupation, apartheid, and the ongoing genocide is on the rise, Hall tells Mondoweiss.
Section 12 of the Terrorism Act, which Wilkinson was arrested under, is against international law, according to Amnesty International. “It is overly broad and vague and does not conform to international law,” Hall explained.
She highlighted how it is important to see how the current situation is connected with the racist and Islamophobic riots that took place in the UK in August this year, as well as the rise of racism in other European countries.
“You cannot divorce the clampdown on freedom of expression in solidarity with Palestinian human rights from the broader situation in the UK and across the region,” Hall told Mondoweiss. “Many marginalized racial and ethnic communities are being targeted for hate and violence – migrants and refugees, for example – and activists, journalists, and protesters that are speaking out against racism and discrimination in many contexts, including in solidarity with Palestinians, are being silenced.”
Hall also pointed out that this also has coincided with an uptick in the referrals of children to the UK’s Prevent anti-terrorism program. Amnesty International has called for the abolition of this program, as it disproportionately targets Arabs and Muslims.
“I do think Islamophobia, racism and white supremacy is on the rise across Europe”, she said.
The Prevent program is UK program meant to “stop people becoming terrorists.” But as Amnesty International has shown it has a track record of creating “chilling effects” on human rights.
Attacks on a growing movement for Palestine
Hiba Hajaj, a British-born Jordanian of Palestinian origin, tells Mondoweiss that the turning point for a lot of people now protesting in the UK started on October 7 last year. She has worked as an activist for Palestine for over 25 years.
Last week, 125,000 people attended the Palestine protest in London, demanding an end to the Israeli genocide and the 75-year-long Israeli occupation of Palestine. “The tactic from the police and government does not work. The movement is only growing bigger,” Hajaj told Mondoweiss over the phone from London.
Hajaj said she had never seen this many people out on the streets since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003: “ I have worked with establishing student societies for Palestine in the UK for more than twenty-five years, and now I see the seed I planted grow into life.”
Hajaj has attended every Palestine protest in London for over twenty-five years. She thinks the police want to shut down the Palestine movement by arresting well-known figures such as Sarah Wilkinson and Richard Medhurst using the Terrorism Act. “They are trying to send an indirect message that this could happen to anyone,” Hajaj says. “If peaceful activists get arrested, then people will start getting scared.”
‘Purely to silence journalists‘
Wilkerson is a well-known figure and has continuously expressed her critique of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians since October 7 last year. Earlier this year, she took part in the “Freedom Flotilla Coalition.”
Her son Jack Wilkinson wrote on X that
“The police came to her house just before 7.30 AM – 12 them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter terrorism police. They said she was under arrest for “content that she has posted online.”
Wilkinson said in a video interview with The Crispin Flintoff Show that she was arrested because:
“(…) I am pro Palestinian, it is because I am broadcasting news from Gaza, it is because I am connected, if you like, with the people in Gaza. And it is purely to silence journalists, it is like what they did to Richard Medhurst (…) It is to silence the people who are reporting on a genocide. And the point of that, is so that if no one is reporting on it, they can continue the genocide, they can kill everybody(…)”
She also said that the government does not want the people to know what is happening to the people in Gaza.“The only way they can do this is by silencing the journalists and the people that broadcast the news,” she explained to Flintoff.
The police also requested details of contacts Wilkinson has in Gaza, a request which she refused.
MENA Uncensored, where Wilkinson was working as a roving reporter, wrote in a post on X:
“We hold the anti-media British government full responsibility of this stupid act of intimidating and oppressing journalists as well as human rights activist in favor of the Israeli occupation entity, and we demand that this zionist-run puppet British government releases our reporter Sarah Wilkinson immediately.”
Complacency in genocide
The UK government recently suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel. But rights organizations have criticized this move as being insufficient.
Dr. Nehad Khanfar, a member of the Palestinian community and lecturer of law and politics, says that this act from the UK government is “below the minimal of what should be expected of them.” He is also the Head of the Emergency Committee at the Association of the Palestinian Community in the UK (APCUK) but is not speaking on behalf of them in this article.
“The British government is complicit in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. It is very concerning that they can go on like this, and the danger is that this could be taken as a role model in the future,” Khanfar said via phone to Mondoweiss from his home in London.
Khanfar said that he sees the arrests of journalists “seriously concerning,” and that several students who are engaged in the Palestinian community have experienced being detained during peaceful protests.
“I have never seen the police like this in the UK before. I believe it is the extreme-right narrative in British politics that is now manifesting,” Khanfar said.
‘Freedom is coming‘
Richard Barnard, co-founder of Palestine Action, has also been charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and is accused of “expressing support for Hamas and has been charged with two counts of criminal damage.”
He will appear before the court in mid-September, and he also faces two charges of “encouraging or intending to encourage criminal damage.” In August, activists from Palestine Action were also detained under the Terrorism Act.
Hiba Hajaj, who has also had social media profiles removed from Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook by the platforms after posting about the ongoing genocide, says this is all part of the effort to censor and silence Palestine advocates. But she says that nothing can stop her from telling the truth.
“You cannot take the whole concept of freedom away from Palestinians. We believe in freedom,” Hajaj tells Mondoweiss. “You can block our social media accounts and do anything to stop us, but you cannot control what we feel in our hearts, and that is that freedom is coming.”
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