UK Politics

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General Discussion for politics in the UK.
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British journalist could face years in prison for refusing to hand over his passwords to the police (www.ilfattoquotidiano.it)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It is an unprecedented case. And it risks triggering an unprecedented threat to journalism. The UK police have repeatedly tried to obtain the passwords to the phones of the British independent journalist, Richard Medhurst, the first reporter arrested in London under Section 12: his analyses and comments on Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza – which Amnesty International has characterised as genocide – have been interpreted by the police as support for organisations banned from the UK, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

The British journalists’ union, the NUJ, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) publicly condemned his arrest and the use of anti-terrorism laws against journalists “simply for carrying out their work”.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/free-speech-threatened-as-journalists-treated-like-terrorists/

This law seems so broad, that it could be used to arrest anyone they want.

How does "expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive" work? If Hamas is in support of rescueing puppies and I am in support of rescueing puppies, does that make me a terrorist in the UK?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This law seems so broad, that it could be used to arrest anyone they want.

that is very likely the point. the UK has been trying to crank down hard on the “troublemakers” with rather general laws recently. another example being section 7 of the public order act. or really just the public order act as a whole

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

UK as a country hates its citizens