BBC contributor, actress and teacher among band of printworks activists

Donnachadh McCarthy, of broadcaster’s It’s Not Easy Being Green show, joins Broxbourne protesters

A BBC contributor, retired civil servant and a maths teacher were among the veteran green militants who prevented newspapers from being distributed around Britain yesterday, The Sunday

Telegraph can reveal.

Donnachadh McCarthy, a green lifestyle coach who appears frequently on radio and TV, including the BBC’s It’s

Not Easy Being Green and ITV’s How Green is Your House?, was among some 100 people who shut down the printworks in Broxbourne, Herts, yesterday.

He was with a number of activists with a long track record of bringing chaos to Britain’s streets, alongside Jonathan Fuller, a former civil servant; Matthew Hammond, a teacher; and Gully Bujak, an aspiring actress.

There were also a number of activists who, despite claiming to promote a green agenda, boasted of recent trips abroad.

Chris Tsonias, a Greek artist who produces work using discarded plastic, was thought to be at the protest despite, according to his Instagram profile, travelling to Venice as recently as Saturday. He posted several photos on social media from the blockade.

At 9.30am yesterday, Mr McCarthy tweeted a photograph of the blockade at Broxbourne, saying: “Dawn at #ExtinctionRebellion blockade of Murdoch’s printworks. 9 hours & loads of rebels still locked on. Murdoch + media billionaires must tell the truth on climate & ecology crises.”

Mr McCarthy, who works as an environmental auditor for businesses and is the author of The Prostitute State – How Britain’s Democracy Has Been Bought, is also an environmental columnist for The Independent.

Last week, he addressed a sit-down protest by Extinction Rebellion outside 55 Tufton Street, near the Houses of Parliament, which he described as “home to many shadowy think-tanks”.

He has also taken part in several blockades of streets in central London, aimed at stopping traffic to highlight the threat posed by climate change.

Through his London-based 3 Acorns Eco-audits consultancy, Mr McCarthy advises businesses and organisations, including schools and charities, on how to improve their environmental practices.

Ms Bujak, who works as an actress and model, moved from Norwich to London in part to join the Extinction Rebellion movement, and in April last year took part in two days of protests designed to bring traffic to a halt by blockading Marble Arch and Waterloo Bridge. Speaking outside the printing plant on Friday night, she said: “The climate emergency is an existential threat to humanity.

“Instead of publishing this on the front page every day as it deserves, much of our media ignores the issue and some actively sow the seeds of climate denial.”

Mr Fuller, a former civil servant with HM Revenue and Customs and Transport for London from Westcliff, Southend, was arrested in April last year, when Extinction Rebellion blockaded Oxford Circus, parking a large pink boat to stop traffic along one of the capital’s main thoroughfares.

His account of his arrest on Facebook went viral, in part because he praised the police for the kindness, concern and professionalism shown by officers and staff while under arrest and in custody.

The 62-year-old has previously campaigned against the expansion of Southend airport and proposals for an airport in the Thames Estuary.

He said yesterday: “There is a lot that the broadcast media and print media are not reporting on – particularly the Right-wing press. Which is why we are

‘The cruelty is particularly for the young. The media is denying them information to protect themselves’

here today. In September 2018, the UN secretary general declared that climate change is an existential threat, but it wasn’t widely reported that the same thing happened in February 2020 when the NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] forecasted that the first summer free of ice would be 2024.

“The cruelty of this is particularly for the young. The media is denying them the information to protect themselves. To prevent what could eventually kill them.”

Mr Hammond, 51, a maths supply teacher and home tutor from Exeter, said: “I’m not naturally a willing rebel. But a lot of this is about Murdoch and the press. This information is out there but it’s just not getting the coverage.

“Murdoch has destroyed personal debates on a lot of things including climate change and Brexit, and it’s just become a slagging match.”

Alanna Byrne, the group’s media coordinator who previously worked at Project Cordillera, a firm organising sustainable adventure holidays in South America, yesterday justified stopping the distribution of national newspapers.

She said: “If we are to sort out this mess we’re in, the mainstream media must stop profiting from a clickbait culture that is swimming in misinformation, that makes us hate our neighbours, suspect foreigners and vulnerable groups, and rally the nation into action.”