Britain Arrests Green Editors

UK - On January 16, 1996, the editors of five small radical magazines were arrested and charged with "conspiracy to incite persons unknown to commit criminal damage." If convicted, the "GANDALF Five" (an amalgam of Green Anarchist and Animal Liberation Front Support Group) face 10-year prison terms. The editors were the target of a secret police operation called "Operation Washington," which involved 60 officers and 55 police raids. Information on the UK's secret service activity has been suppressed in the name of "public interest immunity."

More than 70 members attending Britain's Alternative Media Gathering last September issued a statement in support of the GANDALF defendants. "If the reporting of direct action can constitute incitement, this has very worrying implications for freedom of speech," the AMG observed. "It is not the reporting of direct action which incites further direct action [it is] ... environmental degradation, animal abuse, economic injustice, attacks on freedom, weapons exports, nuclear weapons, lack of democratic process."