British columnist alleges intimidating police investigation after social media postings
The officers did not specify to the journalist which messages are being investigated. Several political personalities have criticized this intimidation.
UK police control a demonstration after the attack in Southport.
Controversy in the United Kingdom after a Telegraph journalist reported an intimidating police visit to her home. According to Allison Pearson's account, several Essex Police officers showed up at her home to announce that she was under investigation for alleged hate messages posted a year ago on X.
Pearson's account has sparked a wave of outrage among the political opposition to Keir Starmer, the first minister appointed this summer. From Boris Johnson to Elon Musk, several voices have denounced alongside Pearson the level of persecution of speech contrary to the Labour government's agenda.
According to the British journalist, two police officers showed up at her home on the morning of Remembrance Sunday - a day commemorating those who have fallen in combat - to inform her that she was under investigation and invite her to a voluntary interview. However, the agents did not specify for which specific messages or posts she was being investigated.
In a statement issued Tuesday night, Essex Police said officers had opened the investigation under Section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986 in relation to material alleged to be "likely or intended to cause racial hatred."
The force said the alleged offence was being treated as a criminal matter and not a non-criminal hate incident, as Pearson recalled being told on Sunday. "As a police force, we investigate matters reported to us without fear or favor, regardless of who makes the allegation or who the incident affects," said a statement from the Essex authorities picked up by The Telegraph. According to the same statement, the Pearson dossier was transferred to Essex Police by another police force.
Wave of arrests following Southport riots.
The Keir StarmerExecutive ordered or justified the arrests of several people whom he accused of provoking the riots through hate messages.
The riots in the summer of 2024 erupted after an unstable young man of African origin killed four underage girls at a dance workshop.
In total, more than 1,200 people were detained in connection with these incidents. At least 800 of them were criminally prosecuted.
Reactions
Different political personalities from around the world reacted to Pearson's complaint. The owner of X, and future member of the U.S. Federal Administration, Elon Musk, criticized what happened, which he described as "Orwellian." "This is insane, make Orwell fiction again!!!!" he wrote on his platform.
Nigel Farage, leader of the conservative Reform UK party, said, "This is Orwellian in the extreme. I am absolutely appalled that Allison and others like her have to live in fear for months without ever being told what has been said against them."
"How can Starmer's Britain lecture other countries on freedom of speech when an innocent journalist is being reprimanded for a tweet?" former Prime Minister Boris Jonhson asked on social networks.
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