If words were everything, Keir Starmer would be seen as a true defender of press freedom. Unfortunately for the Labour prime minister, actions hold more sway, and his own during his time as Director of Public Prosecutions have this week come back to squash recent attempts at self-aggrandizement.
Starmer is said to have “abused” this role to launch what veteran journalist Trevor Kavanagh described as a “blatant attempt to intimidate and silence the free press.”
Writing in a new paper for Britain’s Free Speech Union, Kavanagh pointed to the 2011 ‘Operation Elveden,’ which was launched by Starmer and saw about two dozen journalists charged with “conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.”
These were dragged for years through the nation’s highest court and threatened with imprisonment before being exonerated—every one of them, though in some cases not before going through divorce, suffering problems with alcohol, and even attempting suicide.
The journalist added that writers at his own former newspaper, The Sun, were targeted in particular as an “act of political vengeance,” saying he was shocked, therefore, to find the now-PM last year writing in the publication:
This is a government that will always champion press freedoms.
Starmer described journalism as “the lifeblood of democracy” and journalists as “guardians of democratic values.” Although he also said in the past that too many investigations into social media posts would have a “chilling effect” on free speech, before later preparing even to use artificial intelligence to trawl sites for “concerning” content.
The prime minister’s team at Downing Street unsurprisingly refused to comment on Kavanagh’s attack, which also follows numerous criticisms from Donald Trump’s administration on the poor state of free speech in modern Britain.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
