Media Kit

Over a two-year period I documented how the right to protest in the UK has been eroded, and how climate activists in particular are being targeted. I witnessed first hand how they are being silenced in court, criminalised, and given disproportionate punishments for nonviolent, peaceful action. The rolling out of anti-protest laws in the UK in recent years is deeply troubling.

That I was arrested, handcuffed and detained myself during the making of this film, while fulfilling my role as a journalist holding power to account, is an indication of how these new laws are open to abuse and undermine our democracy. I witnessed remand routinely used as a pre-emptive form of punishment, not as a way to protect society from dangerous people. That many of the activists I followed were given years, not months, in prison for peaceful protest — as a deterrent — bears all the hallmarks of authoritarianism. That the Labour government has shown no indication it intends to repeal these anti-protest laws, and has in fact doubled down, is something that should concern us all.