James O’Brien hits out at the ‘profoundly ugly’ arrest of LBC reporter while covering eco-protest
James O'Brien lambasted the idea of "a journalist being arrested for doing journalism" as LBC reporter, Charlotte Lynch detailed her five-hour arrest.
Despite showing police her press identification, Charlotte was handcuffed and held for five hours in police custody while covering the Just Stop Oil protests on Tuesday.
James commented: “The idea of a journalist being arrested for doing journalism is something that should strike a chill into everybody’s heart.”
James then explained how Charlotte’s arrest was “substantially different from protestors being arrested while protesting”.
He continued: “To be arrested for covering a protest is an entirely different kettle of fish and a profoundly ugly one.”
Just Stop Oil activists have been demonstrating on the M25 for three days.
Charlotte explained how she was taking videos of the protestors from a bridge overlooking the motorway when two male officers approached her.
“A handcuff was banged onto my left wrist and my phone was snatched out of my right hand”, Charlotte recalled.
Charlotte was told she was being arrested “on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance”.
“It’s hardly a conspiracy when the protest group themselves published the evening prior that they were going to be doing that”, the LBC reporter said.
“Filming something being a fairly neat example of gathering news”, James weighed in.
After James speculated whether the officers were acting “with autonomy”, Charlotte concluded that “it just felt as though these officers wanted to make an arrest”.
READ MORE: ‘There's something quite sinister about the way Just Stop Oil is protesting’, says LBC caller