A departure from right to free speech

The second of Sir Robert Peel’s nine principles of policing was in jeopardy yesterday as islanders reacted in horror to news that an officer had pulled aside a businessman in airport departures to speak to him about his Twitter account.

The response was immediate and united in its condemnation of such a heavy-handed approach.

If security has really been put at risk by social media posts, as was later claimed in an official single-paragraph response, there were surely better ways of getting the message across.

This direct and intimidating approach did nothing to dispel the suspicion that airport security does not like being critiqued almost daily by passengers for its shoddy service and was looking for any means to shut its critics down.

The British public has long-established and high expectations both about freedom of speech and about how it is policed.

As Sir Robert put it in: ‘the historic tradition is that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen’.

When such values seem to be under threat islanders are right to demand answers.

The 64 words presented as a response by Guernsey Airport yesterday did not show sufficient respect to those who are genuinely shocked that their island force should be used in this way.

With no context, proper explanation or apology given for the police officer’s action by Guernsey Airport, the responsibility falls on his or her seniors in the force to offer a fuller, more considered account.

To fail to do so would have a chilling effect on free speech among people who now fear that justified criticism of any public body can become a police matter.

Only with a proper response can islanders be assured that there were good reasons why this warning had to be given by a police officer in departures.

Failing that, the authorities should apologise and promise that there will be no repeat.