Considerations are mounting in the UK over free speech after a number of individuals expressing opposition to the monarchy have been arrested.

It comes amid a normal outpouring of help for the royal household following Queen Elizabeth II’s dying and the accession of King Charles III.

Many of the arrests have been for breaching the peace, though some have been subsequently de-arrested and requested to help police “voluntarily”. 

Free speech ‘is one thing valuable’

Paul Powlesland, a 36-year-old barrister, mentioned he was approached by police at Parliament Sq. in London after he held up “a clean piece of paper”. 

He determined to exit and protest what he referred to as a “lack of freedom of expression”, having watched a video of an anti-monarchist protestor being arrested by officers outdoors of the Home of Commons on Monday.  

“I used to be fairly outraged,” he instructed Euronews. “Clearly, it is a time of nationwide mourning, however I additionally suppose free speech is actually one thing valuable and vital.”

“It is vital for individuals to protest … if you wish to maintain up a placard saying ‘God save the king’, then knock your self out. If you wish to maintain one up saying ‘not my King’ it’s best to have that proper as effectively,” Powlesland added.

“It’s fairly easy, is not it?” 

As a barrister, Powlesland determined to show a clean signal as he didn’t wish to threat getting arrested and “letting his consumer down” who he was representing the following day. 

“If do not flip as much as signify your consumer since you are in a cell, it’s not look,” he joked. 

Round ten minutes after arriving at Parliament Sq. along with his clean placard, Powlesland was approached by a police officer who requested for his particulars. 

The younger barrister requested if he would have been arrested if “not my king” was written on the paper to which the officer allegedly replied “sure” since that might be “offensive presently.” 

Powlesland claimed that the “media furore” surrounding the arrests has brought on police to “trip again” from their earlier method in direction of anti-monarchists or rights advocates, calling this a “small victory for freedom of speech”.   

After the video of a protestor being led away by police circulated on-line, London’s Metropolitan Police issued a press release on Monday sustaining the “public completely have a proper to protest”.  

“Now we have been making this clear to all officers concerned within the extraordinary policing operation presently in place and we’ll proceed to take action,” the pressure added. 

Powlesland mentioned the police response to some protestors raised worrying implications for freedoms presently loved by individuals within the UK, including that the specter of arrest or imprisonment — even when it didn’t result in a legal conviction — might deter individuals from exercising their proper to protest. 

“Free speech is a really valuable proper that we have taken tons of of years to construct up,” he instructed Euronews. “It will probably simply slip if it isn’t always maintained.”

“What can simply occur in these moments of nationwide mourning or pleasure, our rights will be kicked away,” he added. 

Powlesland instructed Euronews he was planning to go to Parliament Sq. with a small group of protesters on Tuesday evening to see if police response could be completely different following their assertion. 

On Sunday, Symon Hill, 45, says he was arrested by police within the college city of Oxford, through the proclamation of King Charles III. He reportedly shouted “who elected him” and was promptly arrested by officers on suspicion of a public order offence.

Hill was later de-arrested after he refused to be interviewed with no lawyer and was pushed dwelling by police.

‘It is very worrying’

Powlesland’s issues have been echoed by rights teams within the UK. 

“Protest shouldn’t be a present from the state, it’s a elementary proper,” mentioned Jodie Beck, Coverage and Campaigns Officer at Liberty. “With the ability to select what, how, and once we protest is a crucial a part of a wholesome and functioning democracy.”

Liberty, an NGO centered on defending private freedoms within the UK, mentioned it had seen an alarming spike in police arresting individuals for “peaceable protests” in mild of the Queen’s dying. 

“It is rather worrying to see the police implementing their broad powers in such a heavy-handed and punitive method to clamp down on free speech and expression,” Beck mentioned, citing the Policing Invoice and Public Order Act.

“The federal government is making it more durable for individuals to face up for what they imagine in,” she added. 

What is the regulation?

Part 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 permits police in England and Wales to arrest anybody inflicting harassment, alarm or misery to the general public. It carries a most penalty of a £1,000 advantageous. 

The regulation surrounding protest was widened with the 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which has been criticised by civil liberties campaigns, charities and teachers for weakening the suitable to protest within the UK. 

One in every of its most controversial components is permitting the police to put situations on protests in the event that they imagine they’re too noisy. 

Whereas there isn’t a particular proper in regulation, the suitable to protest is enshrined within the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of meeting within the European Conference on Human Rights, which was straight included into UK regulation by the Human Rights Act.

Though he recognised that it was a “troublesome scenario” for police, Eamon Keane, a solicitor and lecturer in legal process and proof at Glasgow College, mentioned there have been “critical issues” across the arrest of protestors in Scotland, particularly if they’re prosecuted.

On Sunday, two demonstrators within the Scottish capital have been arrested amid King Charles III’s proclamation ceremony, considered one of whom carried an indication which mentioned: “F*** imperialism, abolish the monarchy.”

Each protestors — a 22-year-old lady and a 74-year-old man — have been charged with “breaching the peace”, an article of Scottish regulation prohibiting disorderly behaviour that would have a destructive impact on witnesses, together with acts like swearing or shouting. 

The pair are as a result of seem individually in Edinburgh Sheriff Courtroom. 

In such circumstances, Keane mentioned authorities should think about whether or not an individual’s actions are “genuinely alarming and disturbing and threaten critical disturbance to the group,” and the police response to it’s “proportionate and needed”.

“The state has received sure obligations, concerning freedom of thought, expression, and meeting, the place political speech is anxious, though these aren’t unqualified rights. That mentioned, the sum complete of what [one protestor] seems to have been arrested for is holding up an indication,” he mentioned.

“I battle to know how holding up that signal might meet the brink for a breach of the peace, and any subsequent prosecution on that foundation would clearly convey into play critical issues about elementary human rights.”

4 different arrests have been made in reference to breaching the peace in Edinburgh through the Queen’s funeral procession on Monday.

“If we see people prosecuted merely for expressing anti-royalist sentiment presently – even in ways in which individuals would possibly discover unpalatable – I feel that is very, very regarding.”

“This could concern everyone,” Keane added.