When Paul Chambers missed his plane, he joked about the consequences. Now, thousands of irate internet users says authorities missed the joke.
Mr. Paul Chambers of England was arrested and fined for posting a jocular message to micro-blogging site Twitter in which he threatened to blow up northern England's Robin Hood Airport if it didn't reopen in time for his flight. One might say this caused some alarm amongst the authorities.
Now that a court has turned down his appeal, the Internet has come alive with outrage, with thousands of online fans posting comic threats to the regional airport out of solidarity.
Rights groups warn that the so-called "Twitter Joke Trial" had set an ugly precedent for free speech online.
Police and prosecutors "seem to have completely ignored the notion of context, which is a very dangerous thing," said Padraig Reidy of the London-based Index on Censorship. "If he genuinely intended to blow up the airport he wouldn't have tweeted it. It's obviously a joke."
Chambers' lawyer, David Allen Green, said his client's case should never have gone to court.
According to accounts carried on Green's blog and in the British media, the 27-year-old was alarmed when heavy snow closed Robin Hood Airport, which he was due to fly out of in order to see a friend he'd met online.
In a profane message posted to dozens of followers on Jan. 6, he stated: "Robin Hood Airport is closed.You've got a week and a bit to get (it) together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"
The tweet might have faded into the obscurity of the Internet had it not been discovered by an airport duty manager browsing the Internet five days later. The manager forwarded the offending tweet on to his station manager, and--even though the threat was deemed "noncredible"--it was passed on to police.
On Jan. 13, a week after Chambers' intemperate post, he was arrested and questioned. Chambers' case file notes that "there is no evidence at this stage that this is anything other than a foolish comment posted on Twitter as a joke for only his close friends to see," but he was charged and convicted in any case.
His appeal was rejected to the outrage of Internet users all over the world. Thousands flooded the Internet to repeat Chambers' nowinfamous message, many adding the tag: "IAmSpartacus"-a reference to Stanley Kubrick's 1960 epic Spartacus, in which the hero's fellow rebels all assume his identity in a gesture of solidarity.
South Yorkshire Police, which was responsible for Chambers' original arrest, refused to say whether it was taking moves to arrest the thousands of people now threatening to blow up the airport.
In an e-mail statement, the force seemed eager to put the whole episode behind it, saying that, from its point of view, "the matter is closed."
Green said his client, who has since lost his job, is still considering his legal options.
For those interested, Mr. Green's blog can be found at http://jackofkent.blogspot.com
Anne Tenna: Well, folks, the year 1984 has come and gone, and the events in George Orwell's famous book didn't happen. Or so we thought. We were wrong. So, better be careful of anything you say anymore-the person standing next to you on the subway just might be the Thought Police. All over the world, frightened people are quick to give the government more and more power to "protect" man from himself, until one day these same people wake up to find they have no liberty left, and the reality of Big Brother has arrived. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." 'Pon my Word, he was a smart man.
Rufus Leakin: Anne, you're a Gray Libertarian! Seriously, folks, this may have happened in Merrie Olde England, but the same attitudes about suspected terrorists prevail across the pond. The police and magistrates certainly didn't treat Mr. Chambers fairly, but his tweet was just stupid and insensitive, not criminal. Unfortunately we live in a world where terrorism is scary and real. As Queen Victoria is reported to have quipped, "We are not amused."
")