Prominent UK journalist investigated for “hate incident” over year-old, deleted X post
A journalist for the London Telegraph got an unpleasant surprise when UK police knocked on her door to question her about a tweet she posted a year ago.
As outrageous as this may sound, the paper reports that Essex Police acknowledged officers launched an investigation under the Public Order Act 1986’s Section 17 pertaining to material that is “likely or intended to cause racial hatred.”
A spokesperson for the police said: “We’re investigating a report passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed.”
The journalist in question, award-winning writer Allison Pearson, described the situation as “Kafkaesque.” She was visited by officers at 9:40 in the morning on Remembrance Sunday and told she was accused of a “non-crime hate incident.”
Officers told her it was related to a post she made on X one year ago, but they did not tell her which specific post they were referring to. However, she tweeted frequently about the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel around that time, in addition to covering contentious pro-Palestinian protests that were held in London.
Officers didn’t give her a lot of details beyond saying that she is being accused of “racial hatred” by an unnamed accuser – but she’s not allowed to call the person an accuser.
She stated that when she asked the police constable to tell her the name of her accuser, he said: “It’s not ‘the accuser’. They’re called ‘the victim’.”
She asked how she can defend herself without knowing what offense she is being accused of or who is accusing her, and the two policemen who visited her seemed just as confused about the situation as she was.
Pearson said that the visit from police took her completely off guard.
She stated: “I was definitely shocked. Astonished. That too. Upset. How could I not be? It’s never nice having the police at the door if you’re a law-abiding person, because police at the door can mean only one of two things: tragedy or trouble.”
The situation was even more surprising because none of her followers had complained about the nature of her posts before.
“I have hundreds of black and Asian followers on X/Twitter, none of them ever suggested I’d said something bad or hateful. Besides, who decides where you set the bar for what’s offensive?” she added.
“This is supposed to be 2024 not 1984, yet the police officers seemed to be operating according to the George Orwell operational manual.”
Widespread outrage over unreasonable investigation
X owner Elon Musk has already weighed in on the situation, writing: “This needs to stop.”
UK Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp also spoke out against the investigation, saying that police were “wasting time and resources” by pursuing journalists expressing their opinions. He added that police should be policing real crimes rather than thought crimes and that freedom of expression should be protected.
MP Nigel Farage also commented on Pearson’s situation, saying: “This is Orwellian in the extreme.”
The backlash has been so strong that the UK Home Office is now reviewing how police handle non-crime hate incidents, with the official spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying that it should only be done where “proportionate and necessary” to prevent serious crimes stemming from them in the future.
The Home Office is now reviewing guidelines for these incidents to ensure they do not distract police from going after other crimes and that they do not violate people’s free speech rights.
The UK police watchdog warned this fall that police were recording too many hate crimes, focusing on disputes that involved “hurt feelings,” and taking actions that “contradict common sense.”
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