Dozens charged over print protests
MEDIA: Police have charged dozens of 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 after Extinction Rebellion demonstrators targeted two printing works overnight.
POLICE HAVE charged dozens of 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 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 next year.
Police said all 26 have been granted bail under the condition they do not enter Merseyside or contact any News International employees.
Hertfordshire Police said 51 people have now been charged with obstruction of the highway. Two people have been remanded in custody to appear
in court today while 49 were released on conditional bail.
More than 100 demonstrators used vehicles and bamboo lock- ons to block roads outside the Newsprinters’ works on Friday, with both protests continuing until Saturday.
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. Hertfordshire Police said they had taken 50 people into custody.
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”.
Government sources have confirmed that Home Secretary Priti Patel wants to take a “fresh look” at how XR is classified under law after a stunt Boris Johnson deemed “completely unacceptable”.
The review could lead to XR being treated as an organised crime group, sources said, as part of a clampdown on its activities, which have included bringing cities across the UK to a standstill by forming human barriers along major roads.
Under additional proposals, Parliament, courts and the press could be given special status in regard to the key role they play in democracy.