{"id":1414610,"date":"2022-04-01T09:44:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T13:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1414610"},"modified":"2022-04-01T09:44:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T13:44:52","slug":"uk-lawyer-fined-500-for-saying-free-speech-dying-due-to-islamists-and-other-muslims-wins-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/uk-lawyer-fined-500-for-saying-free-speech-dying-due-to-islamists-and-other-muslims-wins-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Lawyer Fined 500 for Saying Free Speech &#039;Dying&#039; Due to &#039;Islamists and Other Muslims&#039; Wins Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fuk-lawyer-fined-500-for-saying-free-speech-dying-due-to-islamists-and-other-muslims-wins-appeal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1414610&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">A lawyer fined \u00a3500 ($660) by regulators after saying that \u201cfree speech is dying and Islamists and other Muslims are playing a central role\u201d has won an appeal to the\u00a0Bar Tribunals &#038; Adjudication Service, telling Breitbart the campaign against him was \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Jon Holbrook, a British barrister who styles himself as a \u201ccritic of identity politics\u201d who has been \u201ccancelled for defying the woke\u201d, had <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHolb\/status\/1317565186899836929\">tweeted<\/a>\u00a0the remark in October 2020 in response to a British Muslim activist <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RmSalih\/status\/1317350932129132544\">demanding<\/a> that the satirical magazine <em>Charlie Hebdo \u2014 <\/em>which lost a number of staff to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2019\/10\/05\/charlie-hebdo-boss-blasts-leftist-collaborators-new-book-2015-attack\/\">radical Islamic terror attack<\/a> in 2015 after publishing depictions of Islam\u2019s prophet \u2014 \u201cmust be shut down immediately by French authorities\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Despite the social media post\u2019s relatively limited reach \u2014 23 retweets, 61 likes, and seven replies, as of the time of publication \u2014 the Bar Standards Board (BSB) saw fit to punish Holbrook for exercising his right to free speech, subjecting him to an investigation and imposing the \u00a3500 fine as a so-called \u201cadministrative sanction\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe charges against me were always politically motivated, that\u2019s how the left works,\u201d Holbrook told Breitbart London.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether they\u2019re in unpaid activist groups or salaried regulatory offices, they instinctively seek to ban speech they don\u2019t like. But from now on they\u2019ll have to think twice: political speech should be debated, never silenced,\u201d he continued hopefully.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cRegulators of the professions who seek to censor with sanctions now know that if they infringe political speech they\u2019re probably breaking the law. Worse still, they\u2019ll be undermining democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho will lead the struggle to reinstate free speech as the foundation of all other freedoms?\u201d the lawyer added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Free speech is dying &#038; Islamists &#038; other Muslims are playing a central role.<\/p>\n<p>Who will lead the struggle to reinstate free speech as the foundation of all other freedoms? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dNDlJegdks\">https:\/\/t.co\/dNDlJegdks<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Expelled &#038; twice exonerated barrister Jon Holbrook (@JonHolb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHolb\/status\/1317565186899836929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The BSB had imposed the sanction on Holbrook after finding that 17 other politically incorrect tweets, once of which resulted in him being <a href=\"https:\/\/thecritic.co.uk\/cancelled-by-my-barristers-chambers-over-a-tweet\/\">sacked by his chambers<\/a>, Cornerstone Barristers, despite \u201can unblemished professional record\u201d, <a href=\"https:\/\/jonholb.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/08\/2021-08-09_bsb_exonerated-yet-fined.pdf\">did not<\/a> amount to a breach of standards.<\/p>\n<p>The BSB found that the free speech tweet, however, \u201cwould not only cause offence but could promote hostility towards Muslims as a group\u201d and warned him to\u00a0\u201ctake care to consider how your public posts as a barrister may impact on you and\/or the profession and take care to consider the standards set out in the BSB Handbook and any supporting guidance\u201d, further accusing him of a \u201cLack of remorse\u201d and \u201cLack of insight\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Holbrook, who <a href=\"https:\/\/jonholbrook.substack.com\/p\/speaking-freely-as-a-lawyer?s=r\">argued<\/a> that the BSB had hunted out a tweet he could be sanctioned for like a \u201cplayground bully seeking to save face\u201d, appealed to the\u00a0Bar Tribunals &#038; Adjudication Service, earning a perhaps surprising <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10667335\/Sacked-barrister-wins-appeal-against-500-fine-Muslims-killing-free-speech-tweet.html\">victory<\/a> when it concluded that the BSB had indeed \u201cerred in law\u00a0by applying too low a threshold in reaching its conclusion that the tweet breached [the rules].\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There were some typos in the initially published decision.<\/p>\n<p>The corrected &#038; updated version from the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service is here:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/e7HM6BIZlS\">https:\/\/t.co\/e7HM6BIZlS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Expelled &#038; twice exonerated barrister Jon Holbrook (@JonHolb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHolb\/status\/1509096364780752898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h5 class=\"western\"><em><span>Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter:<\/span><\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JackBMontgomery\"><span>@JackBM<\/span><\/a><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JackBMontgomery\"><span>ontgomery<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n<h5 class=\"western\"><em><span>Follow Breitbart London on Facebook:<\/span><\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BreitbartLondon\/\"><span>Breitbart London<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lawyer fined \u00a3500 ($660) by regulators after saying that \u201cfree speech is dying and Islamists and other Muslims are playing a central role\u201d has won an appeal to the\u00a0Bar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1414610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1414610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1414610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1414610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1414610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}