Graham Phillips, the British Journalist currently in the Donbas placed on a list of UK sanctions, has responded to our questions which we appreciate:
How will the sanctions impact you personally? Some would say that in a time of war the Government has to be ruthless with those they perceive to be ‘enemies of the state’. Do you see yourself as enemy of the UK? Do you think a precedent has been set to attack other journalists the UK regime perceives to be dissidents?
Graham has responded with the following:
Well, on one hand you don’t want to show that they’ve got to you, and I’d emphasise that I’m in Donbass and continuing my work from here – the attention of sanctions is helping my reportage reach an entire new audience even. However, there’s no question that sanctions will have, are having, a hugely damaging effect on me – in short, it puts everything I have in the UK, my home, family, at threat. My bank accounts are all frozen, in fact everything is, I have zero access to any funds from western entities – from my bank account, to Paypal. So, honestly no idea how I’ll even manage to buy a plane ticket home, let alone support myself when I’m there, without any access to funds. It feels a particularly vindictive move from Liz Truss, the UK government, to attempt to make me destitute, ruin me. Is one, but this also ties into your next question.I consider myself a patriotic British person, that’s not something i should have to prove to anyone, but for the record – been to 3 World Cups supporting the England team, have supported the British teams at the 2012 Olympics, supported Andy Murray at Wimbledon, and on, see attached photos. So, it’s definitely something to see myself publicly shamed by the UK as an ‘enemy of the state’, especially when the politicians doing so seem to wear Ukrainian flags more than British ones. A result of the demonizing of me by the UK government has been a slew of death threats, death wishes, and they obviously want to make my home, the UK, as hostile a place for me as possible, with 100,000 plus Ukrainians there, put my life in danger, the lives of my family in danger. So, sanctions have an effect on several levels, but basically, it’s the UK government bypassing British law, the tenets of the Magna Carta even, which state – “No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land.”
And giving me a criminal punishment, without any criminal charges against me. And further, encouraging action against me by Ukrainian, pro-Ukrainian vigilantes, etc. It’s Liz Truss, the UK government, doing everything they can to discredit my work, without being able to disprove one thing there, or call out one falsehood, and destroy me, without being able to – without even having to – press one criminal charge against me. I have my position on events in Ukraine, and in Donbass, clearly that doesn’t match the position of the British government. Also, I’m a working journalist, but the British government don’t even have the decency to call me, that, to them I’m a ‘videoblogger’. Which begs the question – what did a ‘videoblogger’ do that the UK government can’t handle so much that they have to abolish British law to deal with him?
I don’t like hyperbole, however in my situation, a precedent has been set – if the UK government don’t like you, they can punish you without any recourse to the judicial system. So, effectively, to punish me, they’ve abolished UK law, for every British citizen. Just, don’t expect to read that on the BBC or Guardian.
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
