Kent man arrested after picture of burning poppy posted on internet
Police say that the man from Aylesham had been arrested on suspicion of 'malicious telecommunications'
The Guardian, Monday 12 November 2012
Poppies at the Cenotaph, London
Remembrance Day is marked in London with poppies. Photograph: Paul Brown/ Paul Brown/Demotix/Corbis
Police in Kent have arrested a man after a picture of burning poppy was posted on a social networking site.
The force said in a short press release posted on its website that the man, from Aylesham, had been arrested on suspicion of "malicious telecommunications".
"This follows a posting on a social network site of a burning poppy," said the statement on Sunday, which added that he was in police custody awaiting interview. Police provided no other details of the incident, which comes as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is preparing to release interim guidelines for prosecution of offences on social media.
Padraig Reidy, of Index on Censorship, which campaigns on freedom of expression issues, said: "News of this arrest is very worrying. Index hopes that when the CPS issues its guidelines on free speech later this month, due regard will be given to free speech online."
The director of public prosecutions, Ken Starmer QC, announced in September that he was launching a public consultation and issue guidelines on how to deal with the daily avalanche of hundreds of millions of comments – some abusive, some potentially criminal – posted on social media sites.
According to the website of the CPS, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, section 1, "deals with the sending to another of any article which is indecent or grossly offensive, or which conveys a threat, or which is false, provided there is an intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient".
The CPS website states: "The offence covers letters, writing of all descriptions, electronic communications, photographs and other images in a material form, tape recordings, films and video recordings."
Last year, Police in Northern Ireland arrested a number of people after a picture of two youths burning a poppy was posted on Facebook.
In another case, also dating from 2011, a who burned replica poppies on Remembrance Day in London was fined £50 after being found guilty of a public order offence.
Emdadur Choudhury, a member of Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), was guilty of a "calculated and deliberate" insult to the dead and those who mourn them when he burned two large plastic poppies during a two-minute silence, according to the district judge in the case.
