The US State Department has raised concerns about worsening restrictions on free speech in the UK, citing buffer zone laws that criminalise silent prayer and new online laws that threaten privacy and expression.
Its annual Human Rights Report released this week says that “the human rights situation worsened in the United Kingdom” during the year 2024.
“Significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression," it reads.
The report cites cases like army veteran Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted last year after praying silently near an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, and fined £9,000. He is appealing his conviction with support from the Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF).
The report notes that such restrictions imposed by abortion clinic 'buffer zones' criminalise even “efforts to influence others when inside a restricted area, even through prayer”.
It also questions the impact of the Online Safety Act 2023 and Scotland’s Hate Crime Act - which threatens up to seven years in prison for "stirring up hatred" - amid concerns over censorship in the UK.
Regarding the Online Safety Act 2023, which came into force last year, the report was critical of how it “expressly expanded Ofcom’s authority to include American media and technology firms with a substantial number of British users, regardless of whether they had a corporate presence in the UK".
“Experts warned that one effect of the bill could be government regulation to reduce or eliminate effective encryption (and therefore user privacy) on platforms,” noted the State Department," the report said.
Launching the report on Tuesday, the US State Department's press secretary Tammy Bruce said that restrictions on speech in the UK and Europe are “intolerable in a free society”.
“We consider freedom of expression to be a foundational component of a functioning democracy,” she said.
“Societies are strengthened by free expression of opinion, and government censorship is intolerable in a free society.”
Reacting to the report, Lorcan Price, legal counsel for ADF International in London, said: “It’s plain to see that the censorship crisis is worsening in the UK – from citizens being arrested and prosecuted just for praying in their heads, to the Online Safety Act clamping down on free expression online.
"Whilst these developments are deeply concerning, it’s encouraging to see Britain’s US allies highlight these issues, as more and more Brits speak out in defence of our hard-fought freedom of speech.”
The latest intervention by the US follows comments by Vice President JD Vance who warned in February that free speech is "in retreat" in Europe.
Singling out the UK for particular concern, he said, "Perhaps most concerning, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular in the crosshairs."
"A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith Connor, a 51 year old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50m from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own," he said.
