{"id":15052,"date":"2025-09-11T02:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T02:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15052\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T02:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T02:02:09","slug":"banksy-mural-scrubbed-off-london-court-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15052\/","title":{"rendered":"Banksy mural scrubbed off London court wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new mural by British street artist Banksy taking aim at the UK’s crackdown on protesters has been removed from the Royal Courts of Justice in London.<\/p>\n

The work featured a judge wielding a gavel over a protester on the ground holding a blood-splattered placard.<\/p>\n

It appeared after 890 people were arrested at a demonstration<\/a> against a ban on the activist group Palestine Action in London on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Footage showed a specialist graffiti cleaner using a chemical spray to try to remove the artwork.<\/p>\n

Social media users later posted images of the shadowy remains of the mural.<\/p>\n

The work was earlier covered by black plastic sheets and two metal barriers.<\/p>\n

The artwork “powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed” by the government’s ban, a spokesperson from the Defend Our Juries group] that organised the protest said earlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\nThe artist posted an image of the work on his Instagram page.
\nPhoto: Instagram\n<\/p>\n

“Since the dystopian ban came into force, over 1600 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding cardboard signs with seven words ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’,” the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

“When the law is used as a tool to crush civil liberties, it does not extinguish dissent – it strengthens it.”<\/p>\n

Free speech has become a hot topic in the UK, with people from across the political spectrum complaining that the law is too heavy-handed.<\/p>\n

The issue hit international headlines last week when comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested for posts on X insulting transgender people.<\/p>\n

– AFP \/ RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new mural by British street artist Banksy taking aim at the UK’s crackdown on protesters has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,48,47,501,156,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-15052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}