After UK Police Raid, Journalist Asa Winstanley Focused On Stopping 'Digital Strip-Search' Of His Devices

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London-based journalist Asa Winstanley says when British counter-terrorism police raided his home on October 17 they asked which electronic devices were personal and which were used for journalism. 

“I was very reluctant to do that because it seemed to me that by doing that I would almost set myself up,” Winstanley added during a Space hosted by Sulaiman Ahmed. “It’s a way of stopping me from doing my journalism, if they were going to take those devices away.” 

But if Winstanley did not identify the devices that he used for journalism, the implicit threat was that they would “basically ransack the whole house.” The police “would take all devices in the whole house.” He did not want that to happen. 

Police permitted him to call a lawyer. Winstanley chose to “cooperate in a limited extent,” however, when they asked for passwords, he refused to provide them.

“It’s a very, very strange situation. I wasn’t arrested. I wasn’t charged with anything, and yet because of the unjust laws of the British state—these so-called anti-terror laws—they’re so broad. They can just seize your devices like this,” Winstanley declared.

Winstanley, who is an associated editor for the Electronic Intifada, was the latest journalist to be targeted by authorities in the United Kingdom through an operation that is apparently called “Operation Incessantness.” In fact, the warrant indicated that police were aware that they were raiding a journalist’s home.

Officers explicitly singled out Winstanley's postings on social media, suggesting that he had “encouraged terrorism” through his opposition to the Israeli government’s genocidal violence in Gaza as well as his coverage of Israeli military actions (like the "Hannibal Directive").  

Since the raid, Winstanley has received an outpouring of support from a number of independent journalists as well as the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). (Winstanley is an NUJ member.)

NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet declared, “The UK government cannot on one hand state its commitment to valuing media freedom whilst endorsing the targeting of journalists through raids and seizures of journalistic material in this manner.”

“The IFJ is shocked at the increased use of terrorism legislation by the British police, and firmly condemns the abuse of counter-terror legislation as harmful to journalists and media freedom.,” IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger stated. “The recent practices of the police clash with the UK government’s defence of freedom of expression and its commitment to journalism, which is one of the pillars of democracy.”

On October 22, the Electronic Intifada announced that they had hired lawyers in the U.K. to help Winstanley and the media organization “defend its interests in the journalistic material on the seized devices, with the aim of preventing British authorities from accessing such materials.”

Winstanley indicated that he took his responsibility to protect his sources “very, very seriously.” He worked with “many activists” and “other journalists,” who could be at risk.

“For the most part, my sources are not politicians, right? They’re not the powerful. They’re not the police. They’re not the security services. Those are not my circles,” Winstanley emphasized. “My circles [are] the people.”

“When I was reporting on the Labour Party, my sources weren’t in the leadership in the Labour Party. They weren’t in the top ranks. It was the grassroots. It was the people, and I could not have done all this reporting without the support from the people who tried to make a difference and tried to make the Labour Party into something different than it has been for many decades, which is a tool of the ruling establishment."

In May 2023, Winstanley’s book, “Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn,” was published by OR Books. He believes his work exposing the Labour Party and the role of Keir Starmer, who is now the country’s prime minister, is part of why he was targeted. 

The warrant mentioned his involvement in the “undercover policing inquiry,” according to Winstanley. Specifically, he authored a report in July 2019 that exposed a British police spy, who had infiltrated the London chapter of the International Solidarity Movement between 2004 and 2007.  

An official inquiry launched in 2014 confirmed that spy cops had collected information on the “personal lives of political activists, such as their holiday plans, sexuality, and bank accounts.” More than 1,000 left-wing and progressive groups were spied on by 139 undercover officers between 1968 and at least 2010.

Given the history of the British police in espionage activities against activist groups, Winstanley shared, “My concern now is I don’t want to endanger any of [my sources] by my devices being digitally strip-searched.”

In September, Mohamed Elmaazi reported for The Dissenter on the increased and alarming application of provisions in the Terrorism Act 2000 and Terrorism Act 2006 to suppress journalism. Writer Tony Greenstein and journalists Richard Medhurst and Sarah Wilkinson were targeted. Wilkinson faced a worse raid, where police ransacked her home. 

Neither Greenstein, Medhurst, Wilkinson, nor Winstanley have been charged with any crimes, but they have been forced to live under a cloud of investigation that greatly undermines their ability to exercise their freedom of expression and do their jobs as journalists and commentators. 

Winstanley does not know if he will be charged with a crime. It depends on whether there is enough pushback against authorities. So far, no establishment media in the U.K. have given what occurred any meaningful attention, including The Guardian.  

As Winstanley put it, this crackdown on journalism suggests that the “British state is at minimum collaborating with and coordinating with the Israeli state or proxies of the Israeli state, such as the pro-Israel lobby.” U.K. officials are being pushed to “stop journalists and stop activists," who are either trying to report on the violence or prevent what's happening to Palestinians.

“The prospect for free speech and independent journalism in this country [is] becoming increasingly bleak,” Winstanley continued. It is as if the British government is increasingly willing to destroy “some of its own institutions in order to help Israel.” 

Even in the United States, colleges and universities are cracking down on student encampments and damaging the reputation of “great institutions of learning. It’s all to support Israel. It’s all to support the genocide that Israel is carrying out on Gaza. But the silver lining is after a year of this genocide people are not backing down.”

“Everyone is still coming out for all the demonstrations, for all the different ways that people can resist this,” Winstanley concluded, highlighting the nonviolent direct action of Palestine Action against arms factories in Britain.

“I guess that’s where I get my hope from. The people haven’t accepted this, and will never accept it.”