Chris Nineham, co-founder of the Stop The War Coalition, will speak publicly for the first time tomorrow (Wednesday 22 January). It is following his arrest at Saturday’s Palestine March in London.
Chris Nineham: unfairly arrested
Chris Nineham, who was the chief steward of the demo, was one of 77 arrests made by police in what has been widely viewed as a major crackdown on the pro-Palestine protest movement. He will speak at the premiere screening of a new film about the censorship of coverage of events in Gaza in a London cinema on 22 January.
Also at the screening will be author and comedian Alexei Sayle and the mothers of three young female activists, who, it’s claimed, have been unjustly imprisoned for taking direct action in support of Palestine.
The producer of the film Censoring Palestine Norman Thomas said:
The police crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters on Saturday marks a new phase in escalating state censorship. This, combined with the outrageous use of counter terrorism laws to arrest journalists and activists, means we are seeing the biggest attack on the freedom of speech in living memory.
The police claimed this was to do with protecting a synagogue, but their real intentions were obvious — to deter any challenge to the state broadcaster, the BBC, and to do this in as harsh a way as possible designed to intimidate people from doing it again.
Thomas believes the police are acting on direction from the government.
He said:
Keir Starmer is really showing his true authoritarian colours. He is criminalising dissent and using the police to enforce state censorship. The BBC does not show us the truth about what’s happening in Gaza and now we’re not allowed to protest against the distorted version they’re handing us.
Censoring Palestine
Censoring Palestine explores the way the media has covered events in Gaza since October 2023 and documents what it claims are systematic efforts to suppress the “genocidal truth” of the conflict. It includes interviews with film director Ken Loach talking about his own experiences of censorship and the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ben Jamal who was also interviewed under caution for his part in Saturday’s protest.
Censoring Palestine is the latest production from Platform Films makers of Oh Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie which was controversially axed by Glastonbury Festival in 2023 after an online campaign by pro-Israel lobby groups. The film will be screened in the Genesis Cinema in London on Wednesday 22 January at 6.40pm.
The screening will be followed by an open discussion with Chris Nineham, Alexei Sayle, journalist Sarah Wilkinson, the mothers of three imprisoned pro-Palestine activists, Stop The War Convenor Lindsey German, and the filmmakers.
Tickets are available here.
Featured image via the Canary
