Richard Medhurst arrested for being the ‘wrong kind’ of journalist.

Right, so the honourable profession of the journalist. Keeping the public informed, telling truth to power and holding it to account, my goodness we’ve got some poor ones in this country if that is what they are supposed to do haven’t we? But that isn’t to say we don’t have some truly excellent individuals and media outlets who are worthy of being called journalist and over the last 10 months certainly we’ve seen many risk their lives to bring us the truth of what is happening in Gaza and beyond, far too many losing their lives in the process, despite targeting of journalists being, as you would imagine a war crime. Where such people as they have risked their lives to bring us the truth, as seen on social media as well as through their outlets, mostly independent or foreign news outlets of course, our own here have chiefly provided cover for our government pro Israel leanings, not journalists as much as stenographers, repeating what they are told to repeat, omitting to cover key events or presenting them in a disreputable and even dishonest manner.
But it really does come to something when a journalist who sits in the middle of the Venn diagram of reporting the truth from the Middle East, whilst also happening to be British, can return home from the Middle East and get arrested on the spot for terrorism, when all he has actually done is his job. So is Richard Medhurst now the ‘wrong kind’ of journalist for Keir Starmer then?
Right, so the arrest of Richard Medhurst as a journalist under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act – the first British journalist to ever be treated as such, should send shockwaves amongst the populus of this country, or at least might have had half a chance to, if the excuses for journalism in our mainstream media were covering this story because yet again, they are not. I sometimes get referred to as a journalist in comments to videos like this, I’ve always rejected the notion, I’m just a guy with plenty to say, calling out those who should be saying it but aren’t, who choose to call themselves journalists, but are more often than not just repeating whatever they are told to print or say on TV by some ‘anonymous source’ or another. But actually the reason I shun it is because, frankly when you come across the crucial and important work some people worthy of the term journalist do, who studied it and conduct themselves true to the nature of the profession, the reality is I’m mostly just referencing their work, because the more such messaging is spread, the more people are better informed for it, rarely do the decent reporters have the platforms they deserve. They are the journalists not me and Richard Medhurst is certainly one such person, doing crucial work, relaying important news events in a manner that are either not being covered at all, or are being grossly misrepresented. But because all Medhurst has ever done is his actual job, covering the situation in the Middle East and doing it honestly, fairly and frankly embarrassing our government and mainstream media for it’s complicity in what Israel are doing, he’s been arrested as he returned to the UK, at Heathrow airport under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Reporting honestly the situation in the Middle East is now a terrorist offence apparently, because that is all Medhurst has done, but under the terms of the law he was detained under, he was arrested for allegedly ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation.’
Now let that one just sink in a moment – expressing an opinion that might be construed as supportive of a proscribed organisation. Thought police and yet this crime carries a potential jail sentence of some 14 years! Think about it. The laws you thought were designed to keep you safe from terror attacks are now being used to prevent you from learning the truth about what is going on in the world depending on whether or not it is being committed by an ally of our government, indeed covering up possible terrorism our government could potentially be involved in itself, stops us learning about the roles our government plays.
Think about it a bit more, and regular viewers of my channel perhaps this is more one for yourselves, but whenever I have reported on the events going on in Gaza and in Israel look at the sources I often quote from on such things; Al-Jazeera, Al-Mayadeen, the Daily Sabah, Anadolu Agency, Declassified UK, Skwawkbox, the GrayZone, the Cradle, independent journalists, like Medhurst, but also others like Bisan in Gaza or Jonathan Cook, you’ll note not a single mainstream media outlet as a rule because they either don’t cover it or cover it up. Prior to social media, prior to so many more independent voices not beholden to coming from the right social class, or coming from sufficient money to enter mainstream journalism we relied on sources filled with people such as that, employing a narrative to support those acting no necessarily in our interests or the interests of others on the international stage. Now we aren’t beholden to that, we have many alternatives and the government needs to dumb us down again to get its way and this is surely an example of that isn’t it? That they are prepared to use terror legislation it seems to do that? Is this not fascism?
Medhurst was detained for 24 hours, wasn’t allowed to contact his family, his friends, he was due to attend the Levellers Beautiful Days Festival and speak on a panel with other voices speaking out for peace, speaking out against global atrocity, discussing what they are doing that is going grossly unreported by our establishment journalists such as Craig Murray, Lowkey, Jeremy Corbyn, David Miller, members of the Levellers band itself and more, but of course Medhurst didn’t make it and they had no idea what had happened to him at the time either!
Now it has been argued that the organisations that Medhurst has expressed support for might include Hamas and Hezbollah – emphasis on the word might here - who are of course resisting Israel and it’s brutal occupation and these are of course designated as terrorist organisations, even though Hamas is the legitimate government of Gaza and Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government too. It is perfectly legal in domestic law however to support the Israeli Defence Force and even join it and fight in it, which, given their conduct that we’ve seen should raise more of an eyebrow towards alleged terror offences, and what really counts as terror rather than how the Terrorism Act, already criticised for being too broad, ironically criticised by Medhurst himself as he boarded his flight apparently, might be abused instead.
But even if you were to support Hamas or Hezbollah, they are currently involved in resisting occupation, resisting an invasion and a genocide and just because our laws recognise this blatant atrocity as legitimate, doesn’t mean it is or should be and in fact there is a story rumbling around about how ministers could be personally implicated in war crimes themselves over their support for Israel, the mainstream media finally after more than 48 hours of ignoring it covered the resignation of Foreign Office diplomat Mark Smith after all, citing his fear of government complicity in war crimes and now a legal opinion commissioned by campaign group Global Justice Now has suggested government ministers may well be in breach of international law as a result of aid and assistance given to Israel, via a principle called ‘vicarious liability.’ That might well make for another video though to go into further, however if such ministers are guilty of complicity in war crimes, are they really the right people to be overseeing terrorism legislation against others?
Besides, if we’re going to go down the international law route for a moment, the International Court of Justice did, just the other week issue an advisory opinion to the United Nations, that the occupation of Palestinian Territory by Israel is now illegal. That reference to supporting the IDF and legally enrolling in it? That is now a crime under international law, but not under domestic law. You might dispute that based on the ICJ decision being only advisory, but thankfully there is other international law that covers this, a little thing called the Geneva Conventions, the first protocol of the fourth Geneva Convention protecting the rights of civilians in armed conflict and even if you doubt that, and please do go ahead and read it for yourself, there is the additional issue that Palestine are a signatory state to the International Criminal Court and are co-operating with an investigation of theirs which may of course lead to the issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu himself and Yoav Gallant, all despite the UK not recognising Palestinian statehood of course. Israel are not co-operating, some will argue the ICC has no jurisdiction, but it is functionally a nonsense. Without veering too far off course from where this video began, fundamentally international law trumps domestic and therefore even if Medhurst could be said to have expressed opinions supportive of a proscribed body here in the UK, given the circumstances, international law supercedes it. Is our government going to follow international law it is signed up to or not?
What has been done to Richard Medhurst is the sort of thing we’d normally expect from Russia, or Belarus, or China but it’s not them doing this, it’s us, here in the UK. Medhurst is now out on bail, has to report to the police again in 3 months time, for what crime? Doing his damn job and reporting the truth, whether the powers that be or the establishment like it or not. If that is now a criminal offence, then we no longer have a free press. Journalism is not a crime, we’re seeing crimes against journalists every day in Gaza as more and more of them, real ones, lose their lives. Now they have the additional fear of risking being locked up here for saying what they’re seeing. We don’t have political prisoners in this country we’ve been told before. That was a lie when Julian Assange was locked up, it was a lie when Craig Murray got banged up, it’ll be a lie again if Richard Medhurst gets treated likewise and where will it end? Will we choose to all be gagged, or will we all risk a jail cell for speaking out for what is right and fair and just? Who’s side will you be on?
Solidarity to Richard, so many decent other journalists and commentators have got your back and won’t be cowed into silence either.
Meanwhile, whilst our government continues to make itself allegedly complicit with Israeli war crimes, other nations are taking Israel to task, the lights might be going out in Israel very soon thanks to Colombia for example as this video recommendation will give you all the details of and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.