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The terror arrest of a man for holding up a Private Eye cartoon during a protest at the weekend was “mind-boggling”, the magazine’s editor, Ian Hislop, has said, as the retired teacher called for an apology from police.
Jon Farley was picked up by police at a silent demonstration in Leeds on Saturday, which he described as a “pretty terrifying and upsetting experience”, for holding a sign that made a joke about the government’s proscription of the group Palestine Action from the last issue of the fortnightly satirical magazine.
“[Police officers] picked me up, grabbed me, and took me to the side, and I ended up sitting on the pavement,” the 67-year-old said.
“I think that’s when they said something about the placard. And I said: ‘Well it’s a cartoon from Private Eye. I can show you. I’ve got the magazine in my bag,’ by which time, they were putting me in handcuffs.”
He was then arrested under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which prohibits support for a proscribed organisation.
“I thought, this is all a bit surreal,” said Farley, who had never been arrested before. “I clearly wasn’t any kind of physical threat. There was no need for them to act in the way they did.
“By this point I was in the van, so I wasn’t going anywhere. I said: ‘You take the handcuffs off and I’ll show you the magazine because what you’re doing is just daft.’”
In the meantime police found out his name from his senior bus pass and he was taken to a police station.
Six hours later, after being questioned by counter-terror police, he was allowed to leave, under bail conditions that he attended no “Palestine Action” rallies, which, as he pointed out, he had never done and would be illegal under terrorism laws anyway.
On Monday morning, a counter-terror officer called to tell him he would face no further action.
“So I said: ‘If I go on another demo and I hold up that cartoon again, does that mean I will be arrested or not?’ And she said: ‘I can’t tell you, it’s done on a case-by-case basis.’”
He said: “There’s been no apology, no explanation. It’s this murky lack of clarity.”
Farley, who was left with minor bruising and cuts to his arms, said he was “frustrated and angry” after the experience. “I was just very shocked at first and then relieved, but now I’m thinking, hang on a minute, what happened here?
“What really concerns me is the whole atmosphere of intimidation.”
Farley, who had attended a number of peaceful demonstrations in the past, pointed out on the day he was arrested, 32 Palestinians were shot by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza while queuing for aid, a subject referenced on his placard.
“I saw it in Private Eye and I thought: ‘That’s really well thought-out. It’s got a bit of nuance about it.’ But I don’t think the cops do nuance.
“I found out later somebody said to one of the police: ‘You know you can buy Private Eye in the newsagent just next to the van you’re putting him in, are you going to arrest Ian Hislop?’
“So they’re coming out with all this guff about: ‘If it’s in print, it’s fine. But if you carry it on the demo [it’s illegal].’ That sounds to me like the police making up the law.”
Hislop, speaking from Private Eye’s London office – having not been arrested – said the cartoon was “quite blatantly an example of freedom of speech on the subject of a government policy”.
The editor of the 63-year-old satirical magazine said: “I did think it was mind-boggling. I mean, ludicrous. He obviously couldn’t believe it and the immediate response in the office was that someone said: ‘Well, the jokes have been criminal for ages.’”
He said the cartoon was “actually a very neat and funny little encapsulation about what is and isn’t acceptable, and it’s a joke about – I mean, it’s quite a black joke – but about the hypocrisies of government approach to any sort of action in Gaza.
“So it’s not difficult to understand. It’s critical, but it is quite clearly a joke. Seems to me absolutely extraordinary that someone could be arrested for holding it up.”
He added it was “disappointing” that the arresting police officers did not appear to have heard of Private Eye. “That’s really depressing, isn’t it? That’s probably the most appalling thing,” he joked.
West Yorkshire police said: “We are sorry that the man involved is unhappy with the circumstances of this arrest. As this is a new proscribed organisation, West Yorkshire police is considering any individual or organisational learning from this incident.”
