Extinction Rebelling Blocking Murdoch Press

[Old Greg]

But no one is complaining here about these twats blocking roads...Far-right clash with police and block A20 in protests against refugees | The New European

Sent from my 5g carrier pigeon

Gammons love them.

[NotAllThere]

Bit totalitarian to block the free press, just because you don't like what they print.

[darmstadt]

Bit totalitarian to block the free press, just because you don't like what they print.

A bit like the UK government this week then: Council of Europe issues media freedom alert over UK government blacklisting of investigative journalists | News Break

[NotAllThere]

According to the Times, the people behind this blocking are hard left - Socialist Workers and the like. So, blocking the free press really is right up their alley.

Extinction Rebellion’s spokesman, Rupert Read, 54, was forced to admit that “parasitical organisations’’ such as the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party were seeking to “use” the movement to promote socialism and foment anti-capitalist protest.

The Labour party and the Tories have condemned the action as an attack on democratic freedoms.

Of course, it could just be all Murdoch propaganda, and it really is XR.

[Old Greg]

Bit totalitarian to block the free press, just because you don't like what they print.

You can't be a bit totalitarian.

[vetran]

You can't be a bit totalitarian.

Oi no getting personal with NAT!!!!

[minestrone]

XR tried to stop the council cutting down some local trees. The residents next to them asked the council to do it as they were all massive and in very poor health. Not really sure why they chose this battle to go all in on but anyway after they were cut down you could see that the trees were complete mush inside and clearly dangerous.

I mean, when you come off looking like total idiots against my council it's probably time to pack it in.

[NotAllThere]

You can't be a bit totalitarian.

In the sense of "rather" than "piece". It smacks of totalitarianism, if you prefer.

[Old Greg]

In the sense of "rather" than "piece". It smacks of totalitarianism, if you prefer.

That smacks of hysteria. Public protest against institutions smacks of the opposite of totalitarianism. Misusing terms like totalitarianism to demonise protesters you don't like however...

[NotAllThere]

That smacks of hysteria. Public protest against institutions smacks of the opposite of totalitarianism. Misusing terms like totalitarianism to demonise protesters you don't like however...

Don't start channelling Dave Spart! Shutting down the free press because you don't like the stories they print isn't legitimate public protest. It seems even the Grauniad agree.

Climate activists accused of ‘attacking free press’ by blockading print works | Environment | The Guardian

...Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, said the action would be “laughable if it wasn’t so serious”.

“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest and make their voices heard: after all, that is what a free press is all about,” he said. “But it is not acceptable for those who wish only their voices to be heard to attempt to silence others.”

A spokesperson for Guardian News & Media, parent company of the Observer, said: “We fully support the right to protest – but we do not condone any action that restricts the public’s right to access journalism and buy whichever newspaper they choose.”

David Attenbrough's article on Saturday

...which highlighted the climate emergency, may not have been widely read – it was in one of the newspapers that Extinction Rebellion targeted, the Sun.