End of Day 3. 2nd day in stand. Survived. Today’s special shout-out goes to stalwart @ObserverUK editor @paulfwebster, @sarah_donaldson the editor who shepherded me through entire investigation. And the wonderful @_EmmaGH who co-reported Cambridge Analytica alongside me💕
Webbo (aka @paulfwebster) is at the back top right & here’s @sarah_donaldson & @_EmmaGH having - I imagine - important discussions about the trials, tribulations & traumas of deciding to do public interest journalism for a living
Oh! And I accidentally missed out ‘amazing’ from my descriptor of @sarah_donaldson. Journalism: a team sport. Editors: the unsung heroes behind every journalist. Memories of the overwhelming exhaustion of that day very very close to the surface 💕
And final 🙏for camera-shy trio in court y’day &/or today but not pictured: brilliant @ObsNewReview editor @janeferg, ace writer @TimAdamsWrites, & veteran defender of journalists @guardian managing ed Jan Thompson (who all successfully evaded my stealth paparazzi attempts)
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The bullying & intimidation a vivid microcosm of what these last 5 years have been like. There is a pattern of behaviour here. In 2014, Banks was arrested and issued with a harassment notice against a female employee.
End of day 2. Thank you so much to @rebecca_vincent for monitoring this case on behalf of 16 freedom of expression orgs. And so much love to my lovely friends & colleagues for having my back. 💕💕💕
The weirdest day. I cannot tell you how much I did not want to fight this case. How much I did not want to be in court today. All I can say is that when the chips are down, people come through. Thank you to everyone who’s been with me through this darkest time 💕
Being a defendant in a libel trial is like being the guest of honour at the shittiest party you never wanted to go to. Thank you to @jesssearch for organising this behind my back. *The nicest surprise*. And to every single person who chipped into the crowdfunder 💕💕💕🙏🙏🙏
This is @RSF_en@IndexCensorship@pen_int & a total of 16 freedom of expression orgs. They issued a statement today calling this case a SLAPP - ‘strategic litigation against public participation’.
This is a really important article by @PeterKGeoghegan that encapsulates what many of us fear. That we are in a slide toward a ‘managed’ democracy. This is how it happens. This is what it looks like.
Far too few people shouting about this. This was excellent by @Freedland but this collection of bills individually diminish our democracy & collectively take a blunderbuss to it & are happening now in plain sight. And once passed, there’s no coming back theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Extraordinary interview with @davidnabarro of @who. A stark stark warning about what’s ahead.
‘I’ve been watching & working on this pandemic since January 2020 & I’ve never been more concerned than I am tonight, not just about the UK but about the world.’
‘I want to talk directly to those who accuse us of scaremongering. I’ve spent 45 years doing this kind of work & my whole approach is to enable life to go on..this is serious. I don’t like comparing it to last year. To me this is unprecedented.’
‘That suggests you’re calling for social gatherings to be limited?’
‘..it’s doubling every 2 days. Do you know what that means? It means it will be 8 times more serious in 1 week, 40 times more serious in 2 weeks, 3-400 times in 3 weeks. Over 1000 times more serious in 4 weeks’