Police commissioner apologises for arrest of LBC reporter Charlotte Lynch at Just Stop Oil protest

Hertfordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has apologised after an LBC reporter was arrested at a Just Stop Oil demonstration but he suggested that by giving the protests so much coverage, the media are ‘part of the problem’.

Journalist Charlotte Lynch was arrested on Tuesday while covering the eco-zealots’ demonstration on the M25 and was held in a police cell for five hours. 

The ‘terrifying’ ordeal came just a day after documentary maker Rich Felgate and photographer Tom Bowles were also arrested for reporting on the activists on the M25 in Hertfordshire, causing the Prime Minister to speak out in favour of press freedom yesterday, saying it is ‘vital’ that journalists are able to do their job freely, ‘without restriction’.

Hertfordshire Constabulary had previously refused to say sorry to Ms Lynch but, while being interviewed by LBC‘s Nick Ferrari this morning, the force’s elected police and crime commissioner finally issued an apology.

David Lloyd said it ‘doesn’t seem as if the right decision was made’ to detain her but he added that police were in a ‘very difficult situation’.

He continued: ‘She should not have been arrested as far as I can see, but I’ve also said that I haven’t looked through the inquiry because it hasn’t concluded, it hasn’t started, I suspect.

‘So I don’t know whether or not she should have been, but to me it seems she shouldn’t have been and for that I apologise.’

But Mr Lloyd then went on to say that the media needs to examine its own behaviour when they report on Just Stop Oil protests.

While acknowledging the ‘important role of a free press’, Mr Lloyd said the media should not be giving the group ‘the oxygen of publicity’ since ‘they are only doing it because they know it is going to be reported’.

He said to Mr Ferrari: ‘Your editorial policy needs to reflect whether or not we want to be part of the problem which is how Just Stop Oil are managing to get their message out their so very successfully.’

Just Stop Oil has returned to the M25 today for another day of disruption.

The campaigners – who want to ban new gas and oil extraction licences – have repeatedly targeted the dangerous spots on the circular stretch.

This morning has proved no exception with the Met Police announcing they were dealing with a person on a gantry near junction 25 at Waltham Cross, close to the border with Hertfordshire. 

Meanwhile Surrey Police said officers are dealing with activists who climbed a gantry at Junction 8 of the UK’s busiest motorway. The road has been closed in both directions while officers climb the gantry.

This is the fourth time in as many days the protesters have targeted those two junctions. It is not clear how they have managed to evade police yet again.

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Ms Lynch had been reporting on the activists from a road bridge over junction 21 of the M25 on Tuesday for about 45 minutes when she was approached and questioned by two officers.

After showing them a press card and having explained she was reporting on the demonstration, the officers handcuffed her, took her phone and arrested her on conspiracy to commit a public nuisance.

They wanted to know how Ms Lynch knew about the protest, she said.

She said: ‘It was absolutely terrifying being in a cell with a pad for a bed in one corner and a metal toilet in the other.

‘I was just doing my job. What’s also terrifying is what this means for press freedom. It was blindingly obvious I was a reporter.’

The question of how Ms Lynch knew the protests were taking place was particularly bizarre, given Just Stop Oil had already done a demonstration at the same junction a day earlier.

When she explained the protest group had put on social media they would be targeting the M25 again she was handcuffed, searched and put into a custody van.

She was told she was being arrested on conspiracy to commit a public nuisance.

Her ordeal continued at Stevenage Police Station where she had DNA swabs taken from her mouth, fingerprinted and even a mugshot photographed.

She was then held in a custody cell for five hours before being told she faced no further action and released.

Speaking to journalists at a conference in Westminster on Wednesday, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt, said officers are under pressure when dealing with protesters but media should not be prevented from reporting on them.

He said: ‘There’s an enormous amount of pressure in play around those protest issues for the reasons that you would understand.

‘But, of course, there is a right for journalists to go and report on those occasions and that shouldn’t be prevented in any way.’

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: ‘Press freedom is really important and you will often want to be – and quite rightly be – quite close to where difficult things are happening so you can report it well and I absolutely, absolutely support that.

‘The principle that you’re going to be close to the action sometimes, and we should be sensitive to press freedom, of course, I completely agree with.’

Home Secretary Suella Braverman later said the reports she had heard were ‘concerning’, but added that any investigation into what happened should be allowed ‘to run its course’ without pre-judgement.