UK journalists fall victim to new police tactics

Two UK photo-journalists have recently been arrested while covering an ecological protest and a pro-Palestine demonstration, in the latter case prior to the protest even taking place. The arrests, which come despite the police having been reprimanded for a similar series of ‘unlawful’ arrests of journalists covering protest actions in 2022, have raised fresh concerns over heavy-handed police tactics targeting the press.

“Police over-reach poses real harms to the perception of journalists’ roles, particularly in public order situations, and therefore poses real risks to their safety,” National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary Michelle Stanistreet told Index. “Of particular concern… are instances where the UK Press Card Authority press card has been shown to officers and been dismissed, where journalists have been arrested and the equipment they rely upon for their livelihood seized.”

Guy Smallman, a veteran photojournalist and NUJ member whose coverage of protest activity appears throughout the UK press, was arrested on 25 June for aggravated trespass while standing on what he says was a public footpath, covering an ecological protest at a boating lake near former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Yorkshire residence. He has since been released on bail, with the police retaining £14,000 worth of camera equipment. He has not been charged.

“The police are using criminal powers which don’t apply to [journalists], vindictively harassing people like us for covering issues they find embarrassing,” Smallman said.

It’s not an isolated incident. Martin Pope, a British Association of Journalists (BAJ) member, spent 20 years working for the Daily Telegraph and has also contributed photography to The Guardian, The New Yorker and The Sunday Times. In April 2024, he was swept up in a pre-emptive arrest of protesters planning to target an arms company implicated in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. 

“Police came flying into the house,” he said, referring to the home of one of the protesters, where they had all gathered prior to the demonstration. “I identified myself as a journalist, but it didn’t make any difference.” 

As noted by both of the veteran photojournalists, who work as freelancers rather than being employed by a newspaper, their arrests suggest that lessons have not been learned following a controversy where police were forced to apologise for what they admitted were ‘unlawful’ and excessive arrests directed by senior officers, targeting journalists documenting Just Stop Oil protests, including LBC reporter Charlotte Lynch. 

Pope was himself previously arrested at the end of 2023 and held for 18 hours, before being released without charge. Police wrongly asserted that he was directly involved in the Palestine Action protest he was covering as a journalist.

When asked for comment on Pope’s latest arrest, Avon and Somerset police said: “The arrests were made with the purpose of attempting to prevent criminality… We fully appreciate the important role journalists have in documenting and reporting real-time events. Officers receive training to ensure the media are able to carry out their work fairly and without hindrance.”

North Yorkshire police did not respond to requests for comment on Smallman’s arrest. 

Both arrests point to a concerning new range of tactics being applied to journalists covering protest activity in the UK.

“It is right that journalists act on information shared by sources including on the location of protests and any suggestion that doing so could risk detention must be condemned and rejected by all who support and value a free press,” Stanistreet said.

Yet in both of the recent arrests, police cited the journalists’ foreknowledge of the time and place of the protests as evidence of direct implication in the protest activity.

“The police said: if you’ve got a tip-off, you’re obviously part of the [protest] team,” Pope said. His detention marks the first time a journalist has been detained during a wave of recent pre-emptive arrests, a tactic which London’s Metropolitan Police have declared they plan to use more frequently in response to ongoing protests over a range of hot-button political and social issues.

There are also particular concerns around the police’s disregard for both journalists’ press cards. When Pope attempted to identify himself as a journalist, he was told: “Maybe you’re just an activist with a press card.” 

Pope said: “But I’m not trying to be anonymous – I don’t have a balaclava! I’m not at all secretive about what I’m doing.”

Smallman faced similar treatment, saying he identified himself as a journalist but was arrested regardless.

There’s a parallel with prior arrests. In 2022, photojournalist Tom Bowles tried to show officers his press card and was detained anyway. Despite subsequent apologies, Smallman reports that the arresting police in his case had “no idea what journalistic privilege was”.

A final issue of key concern highlighted by the NUJ is the confiscation of equipment from both journalists, preventing them from carrying out future work.  Though the investigation into Pope was ultimately dropped he also spent months under restrictive bail conditions further prohibiting his ability to work and earn a living. The statement given by police notes that “items belonging to the journalist, including camera equipment, laptop and a mobile phone have been returned. No material stored on them was downloaded or recorded in evidence.”

Smallman, whose equipment was also confiscated, has already raised money through crowd-funding to replace his confiscated equipment, and promises to donate the new gear to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate once he receives his own equipment back from the police.

Pope and Smallman both said that arresting officers also demanded they hand over their phone passwords, raising further concerns over attempts to access confidential journalistic material. Smallman was threatened with a five-year jail sentence if he didn’t comply and hand over his passcodes, using a little-known and far-reaching police power. To Smallman, the police are “using criminal powers which don’t apply to [journalists], vindictively harassing us for covering stuff they find embarrassing”.

Stanistreet agrees, saying: “We have been vocal on the chilling effect caused by the targeting of journalists and continue to condemn the harm to media freedom where public interest journalism is impeded because of the wrongful use of police powers.”

In their most recent review of press freedoms in the UK, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) cited the 2022 arrests of journalists as demonstrating a continued “lack of pluralism” and “restrictive political climate” in the UK. The recent arrests add further weight to these concerns. What Smallman calls an attempted, “gradual erosion of any kind of [press] impartiality” by the UK police has not yet been halted by public, professional and union opposition to the harassment and detention of professional journalists. It is vital that journalists are allowed to report safely, without the risk of arrest weighing on their minds.

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