Police charge 26 after protest blocks delivery of newspapers

Police have charged 26 people with aggravated trespass after protesters blocked the delivery of some of the UK’s major newspapers.

Some newsagents’ shelves were left empty on Saturday morning after Extinction Rebellion (XR) demonstrators targeted Newsprinters’ printing works at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and Knowsley, near Liverpool, overnight.

Merseyside Police said it had since charged 26 people, aged between 19 and 60, following a demonstration at the News International premises in Knowsley on Friday night.

They are due to appear at Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates’ Court and St Helens Magistrates’ Court on January 8 and 13 next year.

Police said all 26 have been granted bail under the condition they do not enter

Merseyside or contact any News International employees.

More than 100 demonstrators used vehicles and bamboo lock-ons to block roads outside the Newsprinters’ works on Friday evening, with both protests continuing until Saturday afternoon.

The blockade prevented delivery vans from leaving presses which publish the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp’s titles including The Sun, The Times, The Sun On Sunday and The Sunday Times, as well as The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday.

XR apologised to newsagents for the disruption but added it would not apologise to Mr Murdoch, calling on him to “stop suppressing the truth about the climate crisis and profiting from the division your papers create”.