No tracking. No cookies
Subscriptions
Subscriptions
Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on ‘what the papers don’t say’ – without fear or favour.
To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.
Campaigners plan to launch a new round of civil disobedience over what they say are dangerous attacks on the right to protest in the UK, with nonviolent protests planned in Central London on Friday 27 September and in October outside major legal institutions.
The Free Political Prisoners campaign brings together campaigners across the climate and civil liberties movements to campaign on freedom of protest and speech in the UK.
It follows a wave of stiff sentences for peaceful climate and pro-Gaza campaigners in recent months.
Activists plan to demonstrate outside the scene of the sentencing of the ‘Whole Truth Five’, Just Stop Oil activists who were jailed for 4-5 years in July.
Several other Just Stop Oil activists are expected to be sentenced by the same Judge on Friday 27 September at Southwark Crown Court.
Climate Activists Accuse ‘Billionaire Media’ of Driving Protest Crackdown
The Director of the Climate Media Coalition explained the role of media moguls in demanding a crack down on climate protesters
Crackdowns and law changes including the Police, Crime, Setencing and Courts Act, and a new Public Order Act, under the last Conservative Government have led to harsher sentences for protesters, particularly environmental and Palestine activists.
Tim Crosland from Defend Our Juries explained how the new laws are being used to “suppress dissent and truth-telling about climate change” and other issues.
John McDonnell MP, a long-standing Labour MP who is temporarily suspended after voting to scrap the two child welfare limit, addressed a press conference of the groups last Friday.
He hit out at former Home Sec Suella Braverman’s lowering of the threshold for legal action against protesters, as well as activists being stopped from discussing their political motivations in court. He said he was disturbed by “disproportionate” sentencing of peaceful campaigners.
Activists from Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action also shared experiences of arrests, harsh sentences, and even the use of anti-terrorism legislation against peaceful protesters.
The campaign is calling for an open and transparent meeting with the new Labour Attorney General Richard Hermer KC to discuss these issues and their impact on democracy.
The role of Britain’s media in reporting – or not reporting – on these issues was also a major topic at Friday’s gathering, with calls for more support for independent media. Activists want to see the wider media give the new draconian anti-protest laws – and their real-life impact – the coverage it deserves.
This coming Friday, the Free Political Prisoners campaign plans to hold a free public exhibition on the road outside Southwark Crown Court. It was the scene of the controversial sentencing of the ‘Whole Truth Five’ activists in July.
The exhibition outside the court will last for 90 minutes and will feature images of political prisoners throughout history, from Emmeline Pankhurst to Angela Davis and Martin Luther King. The goal is to remind the public of the freedoms that are being lost.
The law, which we are taught to believe exists for our own protection, is failing. It’s being used not for citizens, but rather to shelter those with vested interests over everyone else
Juliet Stephenson
The group plans to continue touring this exhibition around “important sites of law and democracy” until they get a meeting with the Attorney General to discuss the silencing and jailing of people who are “telling the truth.”
Actions will see roads outside Southwark Crown Court and the Attorney General’s Office “transformed” into exhibitions of “political prisoners past and present.”
They want a meeting with the Government to discuss “ending the silencing and jailing of those taking peaceful action to prevent mass loss of life and to uphold international law,” according to a spokesperson.
They also want to see the Government’s ‘independent’ anti-extremism adviser, Lord Walney – a paid lobbyist – sacked. The former Labour MP is widely seen as a driving force of the last Government’s anti-protest laws.
There are currently 40 peaceful protesters being held in UK prisons, with roughly half on remand and half serving sentences of over a year, according to the Free Political Prisoners campaign.
On Friday 20 September, representatives of the group delivered a petition of over 60,000 people to the Attorney General’s Office, in a last-ditch effort to secure a meeting. It was followed by an online press conference at which only Byline Times and two other journalists were present.
The campaign is supported by celebrities including actress Juliet Stevenson and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and politicians, including (suspended) Labour MP John McDonnell and Green MP Sian Berry.
John McDonnell MP told Friday’s event the clampdowns on protest were “remarkable” and not being covered properly in the press.
He noted that the threshold for criminal prosecutions of climate protesters had been reduced so that “minor demonstrations are now seen as massive criminal offences, which is quite remarkable.”
“That is the result of conscious decisions within parliament itself, often, though implemented [without] fully understanding implications of what they’ve agreed,” the MP added.
And he hit out at some judge’s “suppression of the right to articulate your defence within the courts themselves…I can’t think of a precedent for that.”
The left-wing Labour figure pointed to recent sentencing of climate activists as “brutal”.
“[Those jail times] affect one’s whole life. Some people come out of prison regimes scarred for life, but also having implications for their future employment and their future freedoms and access to travel, and so on.”
And while he claimed the new Government’s approach to protest rights was “difficult to gauge”, he added he would be pushing for a meeting with the Attorney General, and an inquiry into the situation by committees like the Justice select committee.
Renowned actress Juliet Stevenson also told Friday’s press conference she was “deeply concerned about the ongoing erosion of civil liberties and freedom of speech in this country.”
“We now have the most repressive laws ever in place to silence dissent. The law, which we are taught to believe exists for our own protection, is failing. It’s being used not for citizens, but rather to shelter those with vested interests over everyone else,” she said.
“We’ve seen peaceful protest [rights] transformed since 2019. The new legislation, drafted for the Tory Government by think tanks funded by fossil fuel companies, has created unprecedented offences. For example, someone was jailed for six months for walking down the road for 30 minutes,” Stevenson added, referring to a Just Stop Oil activist sentenced last December.
“It’s important to remember that non-violent direct action only happens when all else has failed.”
In June, jurors refused to convict six doctors and nurses who broke windows at JP Morgan in 2022.
They had previously requested meetings with senior management three times, presented a letter, and submitted a petition, “all without response,” Stevenson said.
She also called for the Government’s anti-extremism adviser Lord Walney, “who has vested interests and is a member of Labour Friends of Israel” – to be removed as a “so-called independent advisor…He’s not independent.”
It comes as Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive spoke in Liverpool during the Labour Party annual conference, calling for a “rights reset following the catastrophic damage done to human rights under the previous Government.”
Amnesty activists will be up at the conference in Liverpool with a “huge repair van” going round taking the message that “A lot needs fixing” directed at the new Government.
It has a giant image of Prime Minister Keir Starmer quoting his own statements on human rights, such as: “I have spent a lot of my life fighting for human rights” and “we need to make sure human rights are absolutely foundational to anything we do in Government.”
Correction: This piece originally referred to Helen Pankhurst, instead of Emmeline Pankhurst as intended. We’ve also added ‘and nurses’ to clarify the JP Morgan incident.
#mediawatch CrowdfundER
#mediawatch CrowdfundERHelp us expose the worst of Britain’s media and social media and demand something better
A healthy media is the cornerstone of a functional democratic society. Unfortunately, Britain today doesn’t have one. That’s why Byline Times is launching a new project – Byline Media Watch – to monitor and tackle disinformation in broadcast and social media and take on misleading bias in the press.
Outside the system, we can hold the tech broligarchs and non-dom media moguls to account.