What happens when you make an idle joke about blowing an airport up on Twitter to a couple of hundred followers who all know that what you’re saying is meant to be a joke at the expense of your frustration?
Well, in the UK, you’re branded a terrorist, that’s what.
Yesterday, Paul Chambers was convicted of being a “menace” after saying something in jest. He’s now expected to cough-up the fees and probably won’t get a job for a very long time, thanks to Judge Jacqueline Davies’ completely non-understanding of humour. So what does this mean for hecklerspray?
Okay. First thing is first. What did Paul Chambers say?
“Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”
It would appear that, when you say something that is so blatantly a joke, you can still find yourself getting your collar felt by the long arm of the law.? Obviously, any potential terrorist would announce their plans on twitter before going through with any murderous activity. That’s how easy it is to catch ’em these days, eh? Yeah. You tell that to those still chasing the militants out in the Middle East.
And while you may think that this joke was in poor taste and that there was always a threat that this may get taken seriously, we do now have to consider what each of us say online, as Judge Davies has now kicked open a door that could see people chasing prosecution for the flippant things you say on the web – and that includes hecklerspray, which many readers consistently fail to realise is a satirical site that says things in jest which are sometimes incredibly close to the knuckle.
Chambers and his partner are now left to consider whether they want to appeal again, with Stephen Fry offering to pay their costs. You wouldn’t blame them if they felt they just had no fight left in them, considering that the law on this occasion has so badly failed them.
Their main concern will be to clear Chambers’ name, so he can go back and rebuild his life. He’s already been fired from two jobs as a result of this.
To be selfish for a moment, hecklerspray is worried about the wider implications of this hearing.
If you want to know how this is already affecting people, a Tory MP has just been arrested for a Tweet. In a crude attack, delivered via humour, Gareth Compton said:
“Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really.”
While this gag is in poor taste, it’s not unlike some of the things we’d say on these pages. Only recently, we joked that sometimes, John Lennon’s murder could be seen as a good thing. The article noted that this was a crass joke and that we don’t wish murder on anyone, but like these tweets, taken out of context, hecklerspray could be effectively tried for condoning the murder of an innocent man.
What is so troubling is that this pathetic verdict came on a day when we paid tribute to those who fought for our freedom of speech. Remembrance Day 2010 was the day that showed just how woefully out of touch the law is. Both of these arrests were based on a law that was designed to protect switchboard workers from nuisance calls in the 1930s. A law, incidentally, that wasn’t used to haul John Betjeman in after he wrote “come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now.”
It seems that this war on terror, which is wielded so awkwardly by the powers that be, with such a dismally heavy fist, isn’t in fact an attempt to protect the British public, but rather, an attempt to criminalise those who refuse to be terrorised.
This may well set a dangerous tone for those wanting to make light of a serious situation – something comedians and satirists have done since humans could talk. And with our hammed-up jokes, teed-up with the understanding that you realise that we’re horsing around, we’re now looking at going through our work with a fine tooth comb for fear of getting arrested. Arrested for writing some words that were meant to make those that get it laugh.
So we’re faced with two options here. Go for the jugular, or, start holding back on what we say. This is a very worrying moment indeed where we have to be very, very careful about how we word a joke. The contempt and disgust at this verdict is palpable at the moment, but we have to remember that, while we selfishly worry about our collective position in all of this, there’s a normal bloke who could well be looking at a rather bleak future, thanks to the backward, regressive views of someone divorced from the modern world.
The judge viewed the tweet as obviously ‘menacing’, when really, the only menacing thing we’re dealing with here is that the judicial system hasn’t been able to understand what the world is like now the internet is embedded into it. The landscape has changed, yet sadly, the processes still involve people who are unable to understand what is going on – even though they’re the ones who are to pass judgement on how we live our lives and, seemingly, what it’s acceptable to joke about.
So, thanks for that Judge Davies. Someone really ought to [JOKE REMOVED].
If you’d like to donate to Paul Chambers’ appeal, then do so here.
Tom J says
Too late to cry about it now – you should have stood up a few years ago when terrorism laws officially abolished free speech in the UK. Funny how so few people seemed to care at the time (“it’s a small price to pay to help stop terrorism!!”). Well, not so trivial anymore is it?
Richard A says
Please note that Gareth Compton is not a Tory MP, but Tory councillor for Erdington in Birmingham. I’m generally sympathetic to the sentiment of your post (especially with respect to Paul Chambers) but if we want to fight this stuff, we need to be good on the facts.
Your Dad says
Mof, you continue to be a disappointment to your Mother and I. You insisted upon this career in ‘writing’ and yet you are very poor at it. The reassurance on your part that ‘things would change’ when you started at this blog rang on deaf ears – claiming that you ‘could be funny REALLY’ when I had a good job lined-up for you on the bins. Not only are you not funny, you can’t even do ‘serious’ very well, as evidenced by this pitiful post. Please come home. Your mother says she can get your ‘old room’ (my bloody den NOW young man) back the way it was. PLEASE give this whole thing up. You can barely think, let alone write. And by the way, what is twitter? It all sounds a bit daft if you ask me. Everyone at the social says so too.
Capital S, capital A says
Look how many letters you wasted there. You could have just clicked in the address bar and typed readsomethingelse.com and been done with it. Efficiency, lad; these are austere times.
Enjoy your aneurysm.
shane says
i agree. i think hecklespray should put this new “editor” in their stupid new “creased/folder” list as FOLDER.
Cookie Monster says
Oh, my. You folks on yonder side of the pond are really working your way into an interesting area. The folks south of where I am have such an overwhelming regard for individual rights (sometimes to the detriment of the group) with free speech being first priority, or perhaps a close second to being armed to the teeth. This sort of decision would never happen down there, however, they have done some interesting things via the Patriot Act. This latest update is completely insane. Cameras everywhere (do they really help lower crime rates?), people being compelled to provide the means to decrypt data, draconian copyright laws… surely thoughtcrime is just around the corner.
Well, let me be the first to assure your government that I most certainly do not currently have it in-mind to blow-up any particular airport. Let me also offer Hecklerspray a lovely home in Canada, land of the somewhat sane, likely quite cold, and certainly drunk. You’ll fit right-in!
**Submitted from my tinfoil-lined ice-bunker**