Earlier this year Dr Nafeez Ahmed analysed the content of eight bills and concluded that taken together they revealed an unprecedented and undemocratic ethno-nationalist power grab by the Tories. If that evokes images of a 1000 year Reich, you are not that far off the mark. The third Reich's vaunted 1000 year plans only lasted from 1933 to 1945. 12 years. We're at that mark with the Tories now, and if the Cost Of Living Crisis, which they could alleviate with some useful law making doesn't end their reign than I fear they may rule for as long as the Third Reich could only dream of.
The tangled web the Tories are creating will be difficult to unravel even if our official 'opposition' had the inclination or will. That's why so many campaigners have been vociferously fighting these bills to prevent them becoming law.
Though the Nationality and Borders Bill has had universal attention across media outlets, most recently because the Rwanda plan is a natural consequence of it, the others merit just as much attention.
The bills:
• Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill: Criminalising Dissent
• Nationality and Borders Bill: Up to 15 Million at Risk
• Judicial Review and Courts Bill: Executive Diktat
• The Elections Bill: Eroding the Vote
• Higher Education Bill: ‘Free Speech’ Thought Police
• Online Safety Bill: State-backed Censorship
• Health and Social Care Bill: Genetic Data Grab
• Covert Human Intelligence Sources Act: Empowering Political Violence against Opposition
Not included is the the recent Public Order Bill which I have written about for the Big Issue (publication date tbc). The bill is the Home Office's reaction to the Ministry of Justice's PCSC act amendments by seemingly our only bulwark against draconian law; the unlikely House of Lords.
It's considered gauche to mention Laurence W Britt's 10 early warning signs of fascism, but if alarm bells don't ring once you've got to number 5 you may just be a Boris Johnson and Priti Patel enabler. Laurence W. Britt wrote about the common signs of fascism in 2003, after researching seven fascist regimes: Hitler's Nazi Germany; Mussolini's Italy; Franco's Spain; Salazar's Portugal; Papadopoulos' Greece; Pinochet's Chile; Suharto's Indonesia.
Only a few days ago the Home Office in an assault on press freedom (no. 2 and 5. on Britt's list) announced that,
"after consideration by both the Magistrates Court and High Court, the extradition of Julian Assange to the US was ordered”.
“In this case, the UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr Assange."
I paused when I saw Iain Overton's tweet. Whilst I have never used any WikiLeaks in my reporting, it has undeniably benefitted us all as humans.
I only wish we had heard more on the Saudi Arabia cables. By that time the British press led by one particularly disgruntled former colleague and journalist it seemed was less enamoured of the enigmatic Australian. The point being the personal took precedence over the news value in my opinion. Sadly for the public. One could say that the leaks have never prevented any USA bombing campaign, certainly not in Yemen or Somalia, but neither Republicans or Democrats can claim to be the world's policeman now with a straight face, however much they want to.
Last week shortly before the Paul Foot Awards I read an Open Democracy article about the National Security Bill. (That’s no. 10 in a set of power grab bills)
One element according to the article would make it ‘an offence for journalists to report ‘restricted’ official information in the public interest if they or their organisation has received funding from a foreign state.’ The same day some activists sent me a link to the bill wondering if they were being targeted by one particular part of it, as other activists had been specifically targeted by the Police Crimes Sentencing and Courts Bill. They were planning to get legal advice. I've seen far less worry amongst journalists. And they/we should be worried.
With this bill, Priti Patel will have closed the loop. You can't protest in any meaningful way for your rights, you can't report in any meaningful way about the government's crackdown on those rights and either or both may send you to prison. While making it harder for journalists to reveal ministers’ wrongdoing, the bill also ‘perversely grants immunity to ministers or spies who assist in overseas crimes.’
It will only be corporations who can afford lawyers that will be able to fight against the government's might. Eventually the only media may be The Times, The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail. Imagine..
That said the investigative work Hannah Al-Othman, David Collins at The Sunday Times did on the murder of Agnes Wanjiru is exceptional. They found her killer. And whilst he is still at large I don’t expect he will remain that way much longer.
I'm glad they were supported by their editors and given the resources they needed to be able to travel back and forth to Kenya. A well deserved and BIG congratulations on their winning the Paul Foot Award.
The podcast that Private Eye produced on the night of the Awards was fascinating and revealing about the background to all the investigations (including mine) that were shortlisted. I'd highly recommend listening to it, and staying for a few wry comments from Ian Hislop himself as he announces the winners.
Only today did I realise that I started doing investigative journalism 12 years ago. My second (still) unfinished film was an investigation of who was behind Uganda's anti-gay bill. I even did a secret recording of a pastor at one point. Weeks before I first heard about the anti-gay bill I wanted to find out more about Pentecostalism and had begun to follow the self-styled and named Bishop Kiganda.
At our first arranged meeting he sat chatting with me. He'd agreed to see me as my last film was for Aljazeera English. He kept mentioning them as we talked about the miracles he had performed in his church. It became clear that he had a distinct dislike for anything connected with Islam as he showed me a video on his laptop of some captured men having their heads sawn off. I turned on the recorder in my bag at this point. “That's Aljazeera” he said.
Nonetheless it had also became clear that the man had an ego and wasn't opposed to being made famous, as he presumed my documentary would make him. As he told me about the miracle he had performed and miraculously managed to also film in the same room we sat in (a crippled woman (his words) was able to walk once he blessed her) I was confident I could make an interesting if ridiculous film about this man.
Not long after that however Uganda's anti-gay bill was introduced into parliament by an MP called Bahati, who it was later revealed was a member of the secret neo-conservative all men's group The Family/Or Fellowship. My pastor or Bishop as he called himself was one of the leaders of the 'religious' opposition to homoshexuality as he and his fellow travellers pronounce it.
He's there on the left of this video from 2mins 9 secondsinvoking Sodom and Gomorrah.
I had found out that The Fellowiship/Family funded the national prayer breakfast in America and the national prayer breakfast in Uganda and via Warren Throckmorton that the 2010 Texas Republican manifesto had striking similarities to Uganda's anti-gay bill that came out almost simultaneously. The film would be an attempt to track down the money that I suspected was being laundered between the Fellowship, mega churches in America and unscrupulous pastors in Uganda.
I went back to London to try and get funding to finish it, once the trailer got some traction.
I needed a lot of money. I wanted to go to Nigeria and America back to Uganda and if I was filming it now, I'd go to Ghana too, considering the law they are currently debating.
I needed an audio person and hopefully acamera person too, if the budget allowed, to trek round the world with me. I've only filmed one Nick Broomfield Cinéma vérité style film myself, about a ballet company. Low stakes. This needed a professional and around 150,000 dollars.
I got down to the last ten films shortlisted for an American fund called ITVS. If I had managed to get funding from that organisation, linked to their government and if my investigation had found that Britain was involved in some way, and if we fast forward 12 years would I be facing prison? Would the outlets I've worked with be under scrutiny? (HBO ended up buying some of the footage)
The implications and ramifications of this bill are eye watering. And the Labour party have come out in support...
Let’s face it British journalists are not known for their altruism, but they are going to have to find some solidarity and bandy together if they want to stop this bill. It's not like the public will help.
Trust in journalism is at an all time low. The Press Gazette reported only last week that 'The Digital News Report 2022 by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) found that trust in the UK media had undergone a dive recently despite rising slightly during Covid, with just 34% of those polled in 2022 saying they trusted UK news, compared to 51% in 2015.' Some might even cheer the demise of various outlets or indeed individual journalists.
The industry as a whole is going to have to get over it's aversion to trade unionism and drum up some campaigning spirit. Or give up now and start writing listicles.
The #NationalSecurityBill is a clear attack on press freedom.
There is still time to stop it but we need to act fast and let MPs know we will not stand for the media being attacked in this way. - @openDemocracy. Go here to sign the letter and send an email to your MP
Whilst I didn't win the Paul Foot awards. I had the BEST time on the night.
I am still really chuffed to have been shortlisted, as a newbie to investigative journalism in the UK. I got to meet my fucking fantastic editor openDemocracy Ramzy Alwakeel in person finally and HIS editor Peter Geoghegan and the lovely Padraig Reidy who was the lead judge.
I also finally got to speak to Ian Hislop who I first met 25 years ago behind my till at Safeways supermarket in Balham. So good to get some time to chat briefly and tell him, that though I didn’t know who he was then, the person who was in the queue after him had told me and my 18 year old self had never forgotten. It was kind of great to hear him speak about my investigation on stage and say it was "gobsmacking". I agree!
It's honestly amazing to be including in Paul Foot's legacy and follow in the footsteps of my hero Nick Davies. His 2002 book The School Report was foundational for me as a then wannabe journalist. He was also once shortlisted, and then won the following year, so watch out for me in 2023! (I'm working on some things) 😆
My only wish is that next year there will be more black and brown people shortlisted. I was the only black person in the entire room, all night, other than wait staff.
Have a great week!
Sam
P.S I know there is going to be some non-black women and /or middle class women who try to take my experiences and use them as their own. Trust me, I will hunt you down if you do and you will catch these hands