Starmer’s police-state continues: journalist Sarah Wilkinson arrested ‘for online posts’
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/08/29/starmers-police-state-continues-journalist-sarah-wilkinson-arrested-for-online-posts/
Starmer’s assault on democracy and press freedom intensifies – yet another journalist arrested, with devices seized, after reporting on Gaza genocide
Skwawkbox has warned for years that Keir Starmer, his authoritarian instincts and his closeness to the security services are a grave threat to our democracy and freedom. That threat is now reality and Starmer’s machine is waging war on the press freedom and the public’s right to know that underpin our liberties and what remains of democracy in the UK.
That war has escalated further at around 7.30am today with the arrest at her home of left-wing journalist and human rights activist Sarah Wilkinson, who writes for MENA Uncensored and has reported on Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. According to members of her family, Wilkinson was arrested over ‘online posts’ when nine or ten officers turned up at her home and police seized her electronic devices. Further details are awaited.
The arrest is the latest in a series of state threats and intimidation against journalists who reveal inconvenient information, often in airports so that police can exploit anti-terror laws allowing them to deny access to a lawyer and the right to refuse to answer questions and to withhold device passwords.
Last week, British Grayzone journalist Richard Medhurst was arrested on board as his plane arrived at Heathrow and held for almost twenty-four hours, denied legal access and even water for long periods, while his devices were confiscated. For his reporting on Gaza and on Palestinian resistance he has been charged with support for a proscribed organisation and bailed for three months.
Earlier this year ex-pat British journalist Kit Klarenberg, who has exposed the domestic actions of the UK secret services and British misdeeds abroad, was arrested at Luton airport and suffered similar abuse and seizure.
In December, writer and anti-genocide activist Tony Greenstein was arrested by terror police for a single tweet and was deprived of his electronics for months. Last October, journalist and former ambassador Craig Murray was detained after flying from a ‘Free Assange’ event. His devices were taken and he was forced to hand over passwords.
Starmer, the ‘long-time servant of the British security state‘ who colluded with the US on extraditions, collaborated in so-called ‘opposition’ with the Tory government to remove protections for journalists, to bring in a series of laws moving the UK closer to a police state by protecting undercover agents and their spies from prosecution, widening police powers to prevent and attack protest, and introducing draconian penalties for protesters who cause ‘inconvenience’.
As Labour leader, he has protected abusers and sex pests, has pursued and expelled those who resist or criticise him and has overseen widespread rigging of candidate selections.
As PM he has already begun interfering with the UK judiciary, he has also committed UK funds for war and infamously agreed that Israel has the right to starve the people of Gaza, a clear war crime under international law.
Update: Palestine Action’s Richard Barnard has also been charged today for supposedly ‘supporting a proscribed organisation’ in two speeches.
