Guy Who Was Arrested & Convicted For Joke Tweet Loses Appeal

by Mike Masnick, Techdirt
Nov. 12, 2010

We found it ridiculous that UK law enforcement pushed forward with a plan to prosecute Paul Chambers, a guy who made a bad joke on Twitter. After hearing that his local airport was closed and noting that he was supposed to fly out of there in a week, he stated that if the airport didn't "get [its] shit together" he was going to "[blow] the airport sky high!!" It's a bad joke, no doubt. And I don't even mind that law enforcement felt the need to check the whole thing out. But where it gets insane is that they pushed forward with prosecuting him. Of course, even law enforcement was smart enough to recognize that they couldn't charge him with making a bomb threat (which is illegal), because they knew he really didn't make a bomb threat. So instead, they charged him with an obscure part of the UK's Communications Act which outlaws sending a message "of menacing character." It got even more ridiculous when he was found guilty of this.

Now, to turn a ridiculous situation into a pure farce, an appeals court has upheld the earlier ruling. Comedian/actor Stephen Fry, who had promised to pay the original fine has again promised to pay whatever Chambers owes. The BBC coverage doesn't explain the court's ruling for upholding the original conviction, but it certainly seems to make the UK judicial system look like a joke. At some point, shouldn't common sense enter into the discussion? It's fine to investigate the comment, but even the officer who investigated it noted that the statement was obviously a "foolish comment posted on Twitter as a joke for only his close friends to see." That's the point at which they tell him maybe he shouldn't make stupid jokes and send him on his way... not go through with a trial.