NUJ backs freelance detained for 5 hours

A BRITISH freelance journalist is considering legal options to recover his phone, laptop and Kindle more than six weeks after they were taken from him by counter-terrorism police at Luton Airport.

Matt Broomfield

Matt Broomfield: "Neither NUJ nor RSF [Reporters Sans Frontières] have heard back from the police yet, nor have I in a personal capacity."

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Matt Broomfield had just flown in from Belgrade with his girlfriend on 24 August when police detained him for five hours under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act. No arrest or charge was made.

Linking to a media report of the incident in the Guardian ("British journalist held by police at Luton airport for five hours without arrest", 20 September) Broomfield wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) feed that he had been repeatedly questioned about his opinion of the British government and its foreign policy, and asked whether he considered his reporting work objective. "As I told them," he wrote, "my reporting is professional, balanced, and a matter of public record."

Police queried Broomfield's reporting on the plight of the Kurds and his involvement with a news service in Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria. The sudden interest seemed odd, given that the journalist had flown between London and Belgrade several times in recent months without incident. This has aroused suspicions that counter-terrorism police in the UK were acting under increasing diplomatic pressure from those hostile to Kurdish independence.

Broomfield says he is now "exploring legal avenues and funding for a court case with [the help of] the NUJ and other bodies." The NUJ has already written to the UK police, demanding the return of his possessions and notes, along with an explanation, and has called for an end to the harassment of journalists under Schedule 7. "My thanks go to Reporters Without Borders and my union [NUJ] for their excellent support," Broomfield told his X feed followers, adding: "Join a union!"

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