A radio journalist who was covering a Just Stop Oil protest has told of how she was handcuffed by police, arrested and locked up in a cell for five hours for “just doing my job”.
Charlotte Lynch had been reporting on the activists for LBC from a road bridge over the M25 for around 45 minutes when she was approached by two officers.
She showed them her press card and explained she was reporting on the demonstration, but the officers handcuffed her, took her phone and arrested her on conspiracy to commit a public nuisance.
Ms Lynch called her ordeal “absolutely terrifying” and said it was “blindingly obvious” she was doing her job.
Her arrest on Tuesday comes after a photographer and filmmaker said they were held in police custody for around 13 hours for covering a protest staged by the group.
Hertfordshire Police has been accused of “effectively shutting down the free press” and has said it will be requesting for an independent force to “examine our approach”.
Ms Lynch said she was searched on the side of the road by junction 21 in Hertfordshire before officers seized her devices and took her to a police station in a custody van.
She said: “Got to Stevenage police station, that journey took over an hour because of the M25 being closed.
“I was in the back of a police van, handcuffed, my hands were in front of me, handcuffed the entire time, on my own, the two police officers were behind the glass cage.”
She then told of being held for five hours before officers released her with no further action.
‘Cell with a pad for a bed’
Ms Lynch said: “It was absolutely terrifying being in a cell with a pad for a bed in one corner and a metal toilet in the other.
“I was just doing my job. What’s also terrifying is what this means for press freedom. It was blindingly obvious I was a reporter.”
Documentary maker Rich Felgate and photographer Tom Bowles had been capturing the activists on a footbridge over the M25 near Kings Langley in Hertfordshire on Monday when they were handcuffed.
The pair, both of whom say they have no affiliation with the group, had their equipment seized and were taken to a police station, despite efforts to show their press cards.
Mr Bowles, 47, from Hackney, east London, said he was held until 1.30am, hours after his wife and 14-year-old daughter were woken up as three officers searched their home.
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the former shadow attorney general, told LBC: “If the police are now going to start arresting journalists for conspiracy to commit a public nuisance – in other words for knowing that a demonstration is about to take place – then they are effectively shutting down the free press, the free media, in this country.
“And that means the public don’t get the opportunity to judge for themselves whether the police have policed a particular demonstration well or badly, or indeed whether the protesters behaved well or badly.
“So this is very, very serious.”
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, said: “Journalists shouldn’t get arrested for doing their job.”
Read more:
Just Stop Oil’s message for the public
Police officer injured while responding to protest
Matt Warman, the Tory MP for Boston and Skegness, tweeted: “It’s extremely hard to understand why the police would arrest a journalist. I hope a fuller explanation or an apology is provided very rapidly.”
Hertfordshire Police said it “recognises the concerns over the recent arrests of journalists” and is “requesting an independent force to examine our approach” to “identify any learning we should take” in such situations.
The force added: “Additional measures are now in place to ensure that legitimate media are able to do their job.”
