Prosecution of ‘bomb tweet’ accountant shows danger of regulating free speech, says lawyer

ONE of the leading human rights barristers in the country who represented accountant Paul Chambers in his appeal against a conviction for a tweet threatening to blow up Doncaster airport,
has warned that any regulation
of social media would be a draconian step placing dangerous restrictions on freedom of
speech.

Mr Chambers, of Corby, Northamptonshire, sent the tweet to his 600 followers in a moment of frustration after Robin Hood Airport was closed by snow in January 2010, and said he never thought anyone would take his “silly joke” seriously.

However, the 28-year-old was arrested by South Yorkshire Police officers and later convicted of sending “a message of a menacing character”, contrary to the 2003 Communications Act. He was fined £385 and ordered to pay £600 costs.

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This summer, three judges headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, allowed his appeal against a Crown Court judge’s decision upholding the conviction.

His barrister, John Cooper, who specialises in social media and is the most widely followed among his peers on Twitter in the UK, told the Yorkshire Post he found the case very “troubling indeed”.

“It is a big learning curve as far as everyone is concerned but we went badly wrong with the Paul Chambers case,” he said of the decision to prosecute.

“Paul Chambers was clearly communicating with his girlfriend and what he said could never in my view be considered as menacing.

“It had been taken completely out of context.

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“I am not of the view that the
 social network should be regulated because that impinges on human rights and we would be threatening something akin to China.”

However despite today’s warning from police over the flood of cases on social media, Mr Cooper stressed it was vital that officers still investigate complaints.

“The police are short of resources and they need to consider the cases,” he added.

“The internet being what it is, there are some fairly nice and nasty people.

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“This is magnified on social networks and people have to be responsible for what they say.

“Social networks exaggerate normal conversation.

“It is all a matter of proportion and the police making the proper decisions on a case-by-case basis.

“This is human life and there needs to be proportion on both sides.”