UK government blocks MP questions about Gaza-related activity at its Cyprus base | Hacker News Reader

UK government blocks MP questions about Gaza-related activity at its Cyprus base

declassifieduk.org

14 pointsjjgreen10 comments

It seems that UK censorship is a suitable topic for HN shadow-flagging, our very own version of the D-notice :-)

I wonder if Britain would be better (or worse?) off having a constitution with the equivalent of US's 1st Amendment.

We have 'freedom of expression' and case law, but these things end up having to go to court, so I think it being written in a constitution would be better.

Writing things in a constitution doesn't save you from having to litigate them; the US constitution is constantly subject to litigation.

(Not sure how true that is of non-anglosphere countries, though. There's occasional German constitutional litigation, but it doesn't seem quite so critical to politics there)

That would require the repeal of a fair tranche of the terrorism legislation. It is illegal in the UK to "express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation" in the Terrorism Act 2000, for example.

ECHR Article 10: "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises"

(yes, ECHR is still UK law at the quasi-constitutional level, despite the huge pressure against its application by non-nationals)

On the other hand: this isn't actually a free speech issue, it's an "access to classified information" issue. The MOD is simply refusing to say what it's doing. I'm sure the US DOD doesn't give out information on classified operations to random congressmen either.

Find a British policeman and within earshot of them say "I think Hamas have a point". Then you'll see how free your expression is.

Probably wouldn't make much difference. British freedom of speech is not actually that bad in general, RSF ranks the UK significantly higher than the US in this regard: https://rsf.org/en/index

This article goes into it in more detail, but in honesty, the first amendment does not actually always stop Congress from passing laws restricting speech under various circumstances.

https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?artic...

Britain has "freedom of expression" with some very specific limitations (lese majesté for instance).

For background, there seems to be three things going on here.

First, the UK has deployed surveillance assets to support Israel.[1]

"The military package, which includes P8 aircraft, surveillance assets, two Royal Navy ships – RFA Lyme Bay and RFA Argus – three merlin helicopters and a company of Royal Marines, will be on standby to deliver practical support to Israel and partners in the region, and offer deterrence and assurance. "

Two, the UK is delivering bilateral military aid via Cyprus - the 30 transport flights pointed to in the article. We know nothing about what's included in these transports.[2]

Three, the UK regularly grants arms export licences authorising the sale of arms to the Israeli state, most importantly for essential components of the F-35s used in Israel's air campaign. According to Campaign Against the Arms Trade[3], which has been around for a long time and is reliable at what it does:

"UK industry provides 15% of the components in the F35 stealth combat aircraft that are currently being used in the bombardment of Gaza. The contract for the components is estimated by Campaign Against Arms Trade to be worth £336m since 2016.

Between 2018 and 2022, the UK exported £146m in arms sales via Single Issue Export Licences. However, a large proportion of military equipment exported is via Open General Export Licences. These open licences, which include the F35 components, lack transparency and allow for unlimited quantities and value of exports of the specified equipment without further monitoring.

According to the SIPRI Arms Transfer Database, Israel has ordered a total of 50 F-35s from the US, of which 36 have so far been delivered, up to the end of 2022. According to the detailed delivery database,114 a total of 6 were delivered in 2022. While the value of UK companies’ F-35 contracts with the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, are not known, based on the 15% workshare and the estimated $80m a plane unit cost of the F-35, this would suggest that each aircraft involves around $12 million to UK industry. This would imply a value of $72 million (£58m) for total UK deliveries of F-35s to Israel in 2022, far higher than the value of Single Issue Export Licences, and around $432 million (approx. £336m.) since deliveries began in 2016."

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-deploys-uk...

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions...

[2] https://www.declassifieduk.org/raf-admits-to-making-17-milit...

[3] https://caat.org.uk/news/statement-on-uk-arms-exports-to-isr...

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n22/james-butler/up-in-a...

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