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Locked up: Protestors in prison [1]

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Date: 2025-06 

Earlier this year, openDemocracy explored how successive governments had cracked down on protest rights. Now, with Just Stop Oil activists facing lengthy sentences for "conspiring" to commit protest offences, the impact of these laws is being felt more than ever. We sat down with human rights lawyer Katy Watts to discuss the sentencing, and how she and the NGO Liberty won a legal challenge against the government's new protest laws.

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/

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In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics.Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.

Credits:

Presented by Sian Norris

Edited and produced by James Battershill, Ayodeji Rotinwa & Carla Abreu

Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

00:00 Introduction

01:16 Long sentences for protestors

03:21 Protestors new-found reluctance

05:41 Broadening definitions of what is criminal

08:30 A framework for authoritarians

09:50 What inspired the clamp down on protest?

12:10 Holding the government to account in court

16:04 Labour defending Conservative policies

18:28 What happens to those arrested unlawfully?

19:35 Neutering protests

21:12 These protest laws target everyone

24:56 Concerns about Labour's approach to protest

27:37 What does solidarity mean to you?

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/podcasts/in-solidarity-podcast/liberty-protest-laws-prisons-labour-conservatives/

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