Why are environmental protesters being criminalized?
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Why are environmental protesters being criminalized? – DW – 05
Climate and environmental protest is rising in line with increasing global temperatures. But new draconian penalties are putting people who rally against climate pollution in jail. One in five climate and environment protesters are arrested in Australia, which is the highest rate in the democratic world. Similar punitive anti-protest laws have been enacted across Europe and the U.S., Amnesty International says. In Germany, members of the nonviolent climate action group Letzte Generation (Last Generation) were charged in May 2024 with “criminal organization” The law is typically used against mafia organizations and has never been applied to a nonviolent activist group, a researcher says. The Hague has used military action to suppress climate actions, including a blockade of a highway in the Netherlands, in 2023 in contravention of a statute of law. In addition to climate-protesting laws passed by governments, anti-terror laws and military action have been used to suppress protests, Amnesty International adds in a new report on climate protest criminalization in the world. The report is titled “Criminalisation and Repression of Climate and Environmental Protests”
Source: Dw.com | Read full article
Repression of climate and environmental protest is intensifying
Climate and environmental protest is being criminalised and repressed around the world. This criminalisation and repression spans the global north and south, and includes more and less democratic countries. It does, however, take different forms, from stopping and searching to surveillance, arrests, violence, infiltration and threatening threats. The policing of activists is carried out not just by state actors like police and armed forces, but also private actors including crime and corporations. In Brazil, most murders are carried out by organised crime groups while in Peru, it is the police force that carries out the murders. Killings and disappearances of environmental activists are increasing, and in the most extreme cases, activists are murdered. The UK has the highest level of climate and environmental police violence, with 17% of arrests, against 17% in the world – the highest in the UK with the highest levels of violence being on 27%.Meanwhile police are more likely to actively seek arrests and make high levels of arrest, such as 20% in Australia and the UK.
Source: Climatechangenews.com | Read full article
Global Perspectives Summary
Our analysis reveals how this story is being framed differently across global media outlets.
Cultural contexts, editorial biases, and regional relevance all contribute to these variations.
This diversity in coverage underscores the importance of consuming news from multiple sources.
Source: https://www.dw.com/en/why-are-environmental-protesters-being-criminalized/a-72447290