SOCPA on the Today Programme
Milan Rai and Maya Evans naming the dead
Listening to the Today Programme on Radio 4 often makes me angry, and the other day was no exception. Radio 4 is running its "Christmas Repeal", where a panel draws up a shortlist of legislation listeners feel should be repealed, and listeners get to vote on the shortlist. One of the candidates this year is the notorious Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty was speaking on Today for the repeal of this Act, while Stephen Pound, Labour MP, was speaking against.
Pound was supposed to be defending the Act, but ended up saying that it should not have been used to convict Maya Evans and Milan Rai for reading out the names of Iraqi civilians and British soldiers who’ve died in Iraq… in essence he was trying to pass off these convictions as a minor aberration in what is otherwise a sound piece of legislation. But of course it isn’t.
Maya and Mil’s appeals to the High Court against their convictions have recently been turned down. Worse still, in spite of widespread condemnation of the convictions - including in the mainstream media - both have now been charged again under the Act for organising and taking part in an "unauthorised" demonstration within 1km of Parliament last October (reading out the names of Iraqi civilians and British soldiers who have died in Iraq). If convicted of organising the demonstration, Maya and Mil could face both a fine and up to 51 weeks in prison. The Act has been used (and indeed was designed) to try and suppress the free speech of protester Brian Haw and his supporters in Parliament Square. Many acts of violence by the police have been carried out in its name.
I have written to the Today Programme and Stephen Pound to ask what he thinks about this, which is probably not going to achieve very much but it did make me feel a bit better. My correspondence with Steve Pound is here.
