Almost every day a press release raging about some example of restrictions on the press in undemocratic dictatorships around the world drops in my inbox. However now the news in the U.K. is dominated by stories of British police threatening criminal actions against British journalists, writes Chris White.
Columnist Allison Pearson, who writes for the Daily Telegraph, has said in a statement that she no longer feels safe in her own country.
She received what she describes as a “frightening visit” by two police officers on a Sunday morning regarding a post she is said to have posted on X, formerly twitter, but says they would not tell her what post they were referring to.
Subsequently she tweeted an account of her experience.
Another prominent journalist Julie Blindel described as a feminist wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that she was also visited by police on a Sunday over an allegation of committing a “hate crime” over something she posted on X. She said she was given no further details and asked to attend a police station voluntarily to make a statement. Bindel refused and said she was told the investigation was being dropped.
According to the journalists’ professional magazine U.K. Press Gazette: “Police forces around the UK are believed to be keeping records of thousands of “non-crime hate incidents” which are often based on social media posts and occur when no criminal offence has been committed but when a complainant believes a statement was motivated by hostility or prejudice.”
As what might be politely described as ‘an old fashioned journalist’ who worked for my first national newspaper in the late 1960’s I can also admit that since returning to the U.K. I can not feel entirely safe operating as a journalist here. The editor of EU Today has often appeared puzzled by my reluctance to write certain things.
To be clear, I am not referring to libelous issues – all journalists should be legally aware in that respect. My deliberations and concerns are, primarily, whether the police might be ‘persuaded’ to act against me should what I write be politically incorrect or open to wrongful interpretation.
I am not alone.
In one of their latest emails none other than the European Economic and Social Committee state: “Journalists are under increasing pressure from governments and private interests that curb media freedom.
“On top of more familiar obstacles, they are now battling the challenges of generative AI, which, despite the many benefits it could bring, threatens to undermine the economic foundations of the profession.”
That is beyond question as is the fact that the press is failing as a pillar of democracy. As EESC Vice President for Communication Aurei Laurentiu Pionceanu stated: “It is no exaggeration to say that journalism is at a crossroads, facing unprecedented challenges.
“Few could have predicted 20 years ago that by this year most of us will no longer read the morning paper… but be browsing on our phones, reading news and news websites, and increasingly on social media with AI.”
A journalist from the French newspaper Le Soir, Jean-Paul Marthoz, taking part in a panel discussion ‘Responsible Journalism in the Post-Truth Era’ hit the real point saying: “…threats to the media are part of a strategic attack on the system of liberal democracy. In addition, there are journalists working in some media newsrooms who are opposed to freedom of expression and the western democratic system.”
Now to put myself at risk of a Sunday morning visit we have to ask whether the British police are knowingly supporting what appears to be a global attack on freedom of expression. I am certainly not alone.
In a leader column The Sunday Telegraph warned that “overzealous police officers” are “choosing to focus their effort on policing thoughts and speech rather than cracking down on violent crime or theft”.
It said: “Many overseas are watching, and appear horrified that in a supposedly free and democratic society journalists and politicians can face criminal investigation for expressing strongly worded opinions…”
Now who was it that described this sort of thing as the beginning of a police state? Not me officer I wouldn’t suggest anything like that…
