Statement on the arrest of award-winning Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty

Ken Loach and Paul Laverty standing in solidarity with activists at the Edinburgh Film Festival

Today, 26 August, 2025, Scottish PEN released the statement below on the arrest of award-winning Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty, giving its full support to him and other writers and citizens who would exercise their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

Scottish PEN is gravely concerned by the recent arrest under terrorism laws of award-winning Scottish screenwriter, Paul Laverty.

It has been reported that Paul Laverty was among activists who had turned out for a protest outside St Leonards Police Station in support of Moira McFarlane, who had previously been charged under terror laws for wearing a t-shirt that has been alleged to indicate support for Palestine Action, a protest group proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK Government in July. When that proscription was first proposed, Scottish PEN joined PEN International, English PEN and Wales PEN Cymru in calling on the UK Government to refrain from proscribing Palestine Action and to ensure that counter-terrorism laws are not misused to suppress legitimate expression or protest. We also urged the UK Parliament to scrutinise the broader implications of the proscription action for the rule of law in the UK. 

Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that the proscription of Palestine Action put the UK at odds with international law, and the Scottish Human Rights Commission warned that policing of protests against the genocide in Gaza risked infringing on people’s rights to freedom of expression and assembly. The validity of our concerns and those of the PEN International movement, the High Commissioner and the SHRC have been confirmed once again.

Paul Laverty’s arrest happened on the same day that at least 20 people, including five journalists working with Reuters, AP, Al Jazeera and the Middle East Eye, were killed in a double strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. If more people in power had spoken out against the attacks on the people of Gaza, and the suppression of freedom of expression in Gaza, during recent years – as encouraged by a series of public statements by Scottish PEN and human rights organisations in Scotland and around the world – maybe the ongoing genocide could have been avoided, and the citizens of the United Kingdom would not be subject to arrest for standing for peace and freedom of expression.

Scottish PEN gives its full support to Paul Laverty and other writers and citizens who would exercise their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, in accordance with the PEN International Charter. Not least, we reiterate yet again our belief that the necessary advance of the world towards a more highly organized political and economic order renders a free criticism of governments, administrations and institutions imperative.We once again call on the UK Government to reconsider its proscription of Palestine Action, and we also call on all authorities in Scotland to respect the legitimate right of people in our nation to protest in support of the ideal of one humanity living in peace in one world.