{"id":18115,"date":"2014-05-14T14:42:19","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T04:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=18115"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:58:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:58:04","slug":"no-right-to-report-civil-disobedience-why-margokingson1-pleads-guilty-at-leardblockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/no-right-to-report-civil-disobedience-why-margokingson1-pleads-guilty-at-leardblockade\/","title":{"rendered":"No right to report civil disobedience? Why @margokingson1 pleads guilty at #leardblockade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18122\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/cops.jpg?resize=800%2C400\" alt=\"cops\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/cops.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/cops.jpg?resize=300%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When I was charged with\u00a0trespass at the #leardblockade on March 31 (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/2014\/04\/13\/getting-arrested-wtf-is-journalism-and-whos-the-extremist-margokingston1-interview-with-dailytelegraph\/\">Getting #leardblockade arrested, WTF is journalism and who\u2019s the extremist: @margokingston1 interview with @dailytelegraph<\/a>), I\u00a0sought legal advice on whether I could plead not guilty because of the implied right to freedom of political communication under the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>There is no legal basis for press freedom in Australia and the right to free political communication implied by the High Court is very narrow. But I thought it was worthwhile exploring the freedom&#8217;s limits because\u00a0civil disobedience &#8211; the ultimate citizen&#8217;s public act of political expression &#8211; is on the rise, partly due to\u00a0due to Government inaction on global warming and subservience to the fossil fuel industry.<\/p>\n<p>Sydney\u00a0Barrister David\u00a0Hume, briefed by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre,\u00a0advised that I had little chance of success, and I will therefore\u00a0plead guilty when my case comes up again at Narrabri Magistrates Court court in late June.<\/p>\n<p>My case was complicated because I trespassed on the Whitehaven Coal mine site to report. However it is inevitable that the High\u00a0Court will be asked to protect citizens&#8217;\u00a0rights\u00a0to political protest and the media&#8217;s right\u00a0to report political protest given\u00a0escalating\u00a0moves\u00a0to crush civil liberties and the right to organise enviro-boycotts\u00a0by State and Federal Governments.<\/p>\n<p>So, for your information, here is my charge summary by NSW police, and Mr Hume&#8217;s\u00a0legal opinion.<\/p>\n<iframe class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/223975139\/content?start_page=1&view_mode&access_key=key-CsoFA6zOipcysh4W12ot\"  data-auto-height=\"true\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"scribd_223975139\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\t\t<div style=\"font-size:10px;text-align:center;width:100%\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/223975139\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">View this document on Scribd<\/a><\/div>\n<iframe class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/223975155\/content?start_page=1&view_mode&access_key=key-y1i9iMQNQi7g6mwEGxU2\"  data-auto-height=\"true\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"scribd_223975155\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\t\t<div style=\"font-size:10px;text-align:center;width:100%\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/223975155\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">View this document on Scribd<\/a><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was charged with\u00a0trespass at the #leardblockade on March 31 (see\u00a0Getting #leardblockade arrested, WTF is journalism and who\u2019s the extremist: @margokingston1 interview with @dailytelegraph), I\u00a0sought legal advice on whether I could plead not guilty because of the implied right to freedom of political communication under the Constitution. There is no legal basis for press [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,3402,1584,1739,514,1777,585,26],"tags":[2674,2610,1577,165,1088,1365,2659,185,1012,772,1465,1732,287,1466,358,1485,1424,493],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/cops.jpg?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-4Ib","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}