Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

ZANU- Labour

Hildy Johnson | 28.11.2008 17:22 | Repression | Social Struggles | Birmingham | South Coast

Two days after ZANU-Labours case against a journalist for ´suspicion of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office´ collapses a member of the Shadow Cabinet is arrested by 9 anti-terrorism officers for the same offence. What exactly is going on here?

In Moscow, she (Anna Politkovskaya) was not invited to press conferences or gatherings that Kremlin officials might attend, in case the organizers were suspected of harboring sympathies toward her. Despite this, many top officials allegedly talked to her when she was writing articles or conducting investigations. According to one of her articles, they did talk to her, "but only when they weren't likely to be observed: outside in crowds, or in houses that they approached by different routes, like spies".[4] She also claimed that the Kremlin tried to block her access to information and discredit her:[4]

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya#Relationships_with_Russian_state_authorities

On Tues 26 Nov a judge was forced to drop the states case against Sally Murrer, a journalist with the Milton Keynes Citizen and her police source Mark Kearney. It was this case that inspired the headlines about the illegal bugging of conversations between Labour MP Sadiq Ahmed and his unfortunate constituent Babar Ahmed*. The judge was forced by law to dismiss the evidence against the pair because the methods used had seriously impinged on the journalists human rights.
*On August 5, 2004, Ahmad was arrested on an extradition warrant from the United States under the Extradition Act 2003 in South Kensington. [11] The US extradition warrant states their case claims offenses are alleged to have occurred on UK soil, relating to fund-raising for Chechen and Taliban.As of September 2007, no evidence of suspect activity has been credited by either nation, although since 2004 he has been imprisoned without trial or charge by British authorities. He is awaiting possible extradition to America. Britain will not extradite Ahmad unless the United States guarantees they will not seek the death penalty.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_Ahmad
According to the Times “Ms Murrer was interviewed under caution on seven occasions. The home where she lives with her three children was searched by eight Thames Valley police officers while another four searched the newspaper office where she works three days each week. She placed her daughter in a boarding school after being told by police she was going to jail”
Gavin Millar QC told the court: "The measures used by Thames Valley Police against Sally Murrer are familiar in authoritarian states where the police are used to discourage the media from reporting on issues of public interest using confidential sources.”.

Just 2 days after the collapse of this case Shadow Home Office Minister, Damian Green has been arrested under suspicion of committing the same offence. Mr Green was arrested by anti-terror officers, held for nine hours and had his two homes and offices searched as part of a Home Office leak inquiry. As to why officers working the terrorism watch were used, since the search was conducted under PACE legislation and not anti-terror, this is either designed to warn civil servants off from any further leaks or possibly as a way to gain access to the MP´s office at Whitehall.

According to the BBC The Lib Dems have called shadow immigration minister Damian Green's arrest a "mayday warning" for democracy amid cross-party anger over the move.

This is serious stuff and it is not time to let go of this because some snotty Tory MP has been nicked. Whether these two cases represent scare tactics or Brown and his thugs in the Met are getting ready to lockdown Britain.is the question. Even if the former applies it is surely not long before it will be necessary to adopt the latter strategy. It may alternatively be a strategy to test public opinion before round ups of politicians and other dissenters become routine. In both cases the State has gone far beyond its legitimate remit.

Hildy Johnson

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. ive heard this before somewhere? — Jimbo
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech