Police blasted for ‘attacking free speech’ by high figures together with Elon Musk after officers launched ‘Kafkaesque’ probe into journalist over year-old social media put up
A police force has been accused of carrying out an ‘appalling’ attack on free speech after launching an investigation into a journalist over a post on social media.
Allison Pearson, 64, claimed two Essex Police officers turned up at her door at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday to inform her she was being investigated over a post on X from a year ago.
The award-winning writer said she was still in her dressing gown when one officer at the door said ‘I was accused of a non-crime hate incident. It was to do with something I had posted on X a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred apparently’.
Now the force is facing backlash from critics, including Boris Johnson, after Ms Pearson was not told the specific focus of the enquiry.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary and former policing minister, told The Telegraph: ‘It is completely wrong that the journalist was not even told about the particulars of the allegation […].’
He added: ‘I am deeply concerned this will have a chilling effect on free speech and free expression.’
Elon Musk, who owns X, waded in. In response to a post describing how ‘British police visited and questioned a journalist in her home because someone was offended by a year-old post on X’, Mr Musk replied: ‘This needs to stop.’
Allison Pearson (pictured) is accused of stirring up racial hatred in a post on social media in 2023
Boris Johnson branded the investigation ‘appalling’ and an attack on free speech
Former Prime Minister Mr Johnson wrote in a post on X: ‘This is appalling. How can Starmer’s Britain lecture other countries about free speech when an innocent journalist gets a knock on the door – for a tweet?
‘Our police have their hands full of burglaries and violent crime. They are being forced to behave like a woke Securitate – and it has to stop.’
Former Tory party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘What the public wants is for [police] to crack down on shoplifting, violent threats and anti-social behaviour. If you want to know what hate is, that is hate. They should deal with that rather than targeting journalists whose job is to speak freely.’
A spokesman for Essex Police said: ‘As a police force, we investigate matters which are reported to us without fear or favour, no matter who makes a report or to whom the incident concerns.’
At the time of the alleged tweet last year, the journalist was regularly posting about Hamas‘s October 7 attacks on Israel, as well as pro-Palestine demonstrations happening in London.
On Tuesday night, Essex Police said officers had opened an investigation under section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986 relating to material allegedly ‘likely or intended to cause racial hatred’.
A police spokesman said: ‘We’re investigating a report passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed. An investigation is now being carried out under section 17 of the Public Order Act.
Ms Pearson (pictured in 2011) said she was ‘shocked’ to have officers turn up on her doorstep on Remembrance Sunday
‘As part of that investigation, officers attended an address on Sunday November 10 to invite a woman to attend a voluntary interview on the matter.’
The case was being treated as a criminal matter rather than an non-crime hate incident, police sources suggested.
Ms Pearson told The Telegraph she was ‘shocked’ to have officers turn up on her doorstep on Remembrance Sunday while she was still in her dressing gown.
‘I was definitely shocked. Astonished. That too. Upset,’ she said.
