Greenpeace has said its campaigners are prepared to risk jail over
its PR effort to stop the Government introducing tough new
anti-terrorist legislation.
The environmental pressure group launched a daily PR offensive this week
accusing the Government of blocking the public's right to information
about details of nuclear waste transportation.
And this will be carried on even in the face of potential seven-year
prison sentences, according to Greenpeace nuclear spokeswoman Emma
Gibson.
She said: 'We are extremely concerned about the provision of information
about nuclear sites in this proposed legislation.
'We have no intention of stopping our campaign. We will continue
publishing information even if the legislation is passed and becomes
law. If it means jail then we will take the consequences,' she
added.
Nuclear activity is one of the clauses in the proposed new bill which,
if passed, will make it illegal to distribute information about it.
The Government is attempting to rush through a newly-drawn up
anti-terrorism, crime and security bill following the US terror attacks
in September.
Measures in the bill, which could become law within four weeks, will
stop people from publishing information on nuclear technologies, nuclear
sites and the transportation of nuclear materials.
The maximum penalty for breaking the law would be seven years'
imprisonment.
Full-page ads appeared in the national press this week, accompanied by
media relations activity including daily website updates and radio and
TV interviews.
Maps have been published in newspapers showing nuclear waste train
routes through London and Greenpeace has placed findings of public
investigations on its UK website.
Greenpeace argues that nuclear shipments from Sellafield to Japan, and
from Scotland to Germany, have been routed by road and sea, carrying
highly toxic waste that is a threat to the environment and the
public.
The group's UK executive director Stephen Tindale said: 'Letting people
know about the secretive and dangerous goings-on of the nuclear industry
is a public service.
'If the Government thinks the nuclear industry is a threat to our safety
and security, then it is the industry that must be stopped,' he
added.
A Home Office spokesman declined to comment on Greenpeace's stance, only
to say that legislation was necessary for public safety in the wake of
events in the US.
