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The UK government is vulnerable
ON SUNDAY 2 November London Freelance Branch held a symposium in partnership with King’s College London’s University College Union branch to mark the annual UNESCO day calling for an end to impunity for crimes against journalists. For an overview of the event see here.
John McDonnell introduced himself as secretary of the NUJ's parliamentary group.
John McDonnell holds up the name of a journalist killed in Gaza at the close of the event on 2 November
THE NUJ'S parliamentary group is a trade union group that we established in parliament maybe 20 years ago. I am one of the founding members. One of the roles that we play is to act as the voice of the union in parliament. The union itself identifies some of the key issues it wants us to raise.
And one of those key issues has been the safety of journalists, over those two decades, both here and internationally. One of the things that we were involved in was the NUJ negotiation with the government over the development of a national action plan for the safety of journalists here, which was published and was meant to be followed up by further legislation.
It was done when it was a Tory government, under John Whittingdale, who was the Secretary of State, and it was done with a great flourish. But we haven't yet seen much by way of implementation legislation to enhance the protection of journalists here.
Then on the international front, we've taken up, over the years, cases in a number of countries. One of those cases that wasn't mentioned earlier was when the journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow in 2006.
So naturally we've taken up the case of what's been happening in Palestine.
We took up the case of Shireen abu Akleh’s murder by the Israeli state – which it initially denied, and then all the evidence pointed towards them. We've tried to ensure that the government recognises its responsibilities.
And we've failed. We've tried to do it by registering the scale of what's happening. You've seen the interventions and debates, meetings with ministers and others, trying to impress upon them the wholesale massacre of journalists.
And initially, although there was a denial of the targeting of journalists, it's quite obvious there has been. The Israeli government, and the Israeli military in particular, is clearly concerned that the truth would be told. As a result of that, they went about a systematic policy of murdering journalists.
Just for the record, the latest figure I had was 248 since 7 October 2023.
The UN has made it clear that there's been a deliberate assault on press freedom.
It's a threat to democracy itself.We've tried to get this government to echo the UN. We're not asking for the earth. We're simply asking the government to align itself with what's happening internationally.
The second issue we've been raising since then is the continued imprisonment of Palestinian journalists. On the figures that we got, there is consistent arbitrary arrest and detention: anything between 16 and 21, it's unsure at the moment, have been detained over the past two years. Only three, I believe, were released in this recent release of prisoners detained by the Israelis. We're looking to identify individually those who are still detained.
As you know, the reports of their conditions of detention are of harassment, torture and degrading treatment. We've been trying to get that across to the government.
And we've been trying to put it in context of the work that we've done elsewhere. In Pakistan there have been seven deaths; in Bangladesh five and in Mexico five. That puts in context the scale of the massacre that's been taking place.
These are war crimes. Neve will take us through the detail of the various international conventions and UN resolutions that apply throughout.
So we've supported the demand that individual governments and agencies should be taking cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Al Jazeera took Shireen's case to the ICC and the International Federation of Journalists have been submitting cases.
More recently, the Hind Rajar Foundation and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights have filed a joint case over the murder of the group of Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents that were hit by the bombing of a tent close to a hospital.
But our government hasn't acted. Our strategy now is to maximise the pressure on our own government through lobbies, interventions in parliament and seeking ministerial meetings.
Neve will take us to the legislation on this, but the UK government have a responsibility. They have a right to take these cases upand our representations to government should be listened to in that respect.
I think part of government's reticence is because they're concerned about their own complicity in this. Because whatever they've said about the restriction of arms licences, they've continued to supply weapons to the Israeli state. They've supplied the parts that keeps the aeroplanes flying, that enable the bombing to take place, some of it specifically, we believe, targeted against journalists.
International law is absolutely clear. We have the opportunity, therefore, to take up cases through the International Criminal Court – to demand investigation and as a result of that take action against the perpetrators themselves. That's the demand we're putting on this government.
Another issue that we're taking up is the conflation of Palestine Action with Hamas and Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. It is absolutely bizarre that the UK is imprisoning people for simply protesting against the murders that have taken place, and describing those people campaigning for peace and justice as “terrorists”.
So, again, what can we do? As a union, we can continue the pressure through the parliamentary group. We will continue to raise the issues as much as we possibly can – and as much as can be done by journalists themselves, particularly taking up individual cases.
I think many senior politicians are hoping this will just go away, now some peace deal has been signed. I don't think it will. I don't think the union will allow it to go away.
Certainly, as a union, we should not allow it to go away; we should be pressing the government to recognise its responsibilities, because it's failed to do until now.
We've been looking at different angles about what could be done because what's caused specific offence during this period is that the government has maintained normal relations with Israel. We've seen the Israeli president come here, we've seen cabinet members in the last few weeks photographed smiling next to the Israeli ambassador, who's an advocate of a “Greater Israel”, who even refuses to recognise the two-state solution.
We've been trying to impress upon them that actually the more they maintain that relationship, the more they can be accused of complicity, and the more they should be accused of complicity. We've spoken to individual ministers in the lobbies. Even a couple of Tories have been saying to the government that they hope they've got some good legal opinions behind them, because at some later date they may well find themselves accused of complicity in these international crimes. The government should be considered vulnerable to that.
Another issue for me, which grates particularly, is that the UK has taken no action whatsoever against British citizens fighting in the IDF [the Israeli military]. We've raised this – and the response has been that it's covered by the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870. We are told that you can be prosecuted under that only if you join the armed forces of a foreign state “at war with any foreign state at peace with Her Majesty”.
So now that the UK has recognised the Palestinian state, the Act applies. So we're suggesting that now is the time that the UK should use that legislation to prosecute those British citizens who have been in the IDF – an organisation that's perpetrated these war crimes and has particularly targeted journalists.
I think the government is incredibly vulnerable on this, politically, legally and, actually, morally as well. My job, along with others in parliament, is to try to get the argument across from the NUJ and for all of you NUJ members.
No to impunity our symposium to mark the UNESCO day