LONDON: Irish novelist Sally Rooney said Britain’s decision to ban pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization could stop her receiving royalties and even lead to her books being withdrawn from sale due to her support for the group.
The bestselling author said in a witness statement made public on Thursday, the second day of a legal bid to overturn the ban, that production company Element Pictures had expressed concern that paying her royalties could be a crime.
Element Pictures, which produced the adaptations of Rooney’s novels “Normal People” and “Conversations with Friends” for the BBC, wrote to her agent in September after Rooney said she would use royalties to support Palestine Action.
Rooney also said in her statement submitted to London’s High Court that the law was unclear on whether her publishers, Faber & Faber, could pay her royalties on book sales, meaning “my existing works may have to be withdrawn from sale” in Britain.
“The disappearance of my work from bookshops would mark a truly extreme incursion by the state into the realm of artistic expression,” she said in the statement.
Element Pictures and Faber & Faber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rooney’s statement was provided to the court on behalf of Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, who argues designating the group a terrorist organization is an authoritarian restriction on protest.
Since it was banned in July, more than 2,000 people have been arrested for holding signs which say “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” – including more than 100 outside court on Wednesday, according to police.
Sally Rooney says UK ban on Palestine Action could force her books off shelves
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Sally Rooney says UK ban on Palestine Action could force her books off shelves
- Irish novelist has been one of the most vocal critics of the UK government’s decision to proscribe the pro-Palestine group as a terrorist organizatio
- Rooney said she would use royalties to support Palestine Action
Gabon cuts off Facebook, TikTok after protests
Libreville, Gabon: Facebook and TikTok were no longer available in Gabon on Wednesday, AFP journalists said, after regulators said they were suspending social media over national security concerns amid anti-government protests.
Gabon’s media regulator on Tuesday announced the suspension of social media platforms until further notice, saying that online posts were stoking conflict.
The High Authority for Communication imposed “the immediate suspension of social media platforms in Gabon,” its spokesman Jean-Claude Mendome said in a televised statement.
He said “inappropriate, defamatory, hateful, and insulting content” was undermining “human dignity, public morality, the honor of citizens, social cohesion, the stability of the Republic’s institutions, and national security.”
The communications body spokesman also cited the “spread of false information,” “cyberbullying” and “unauthorized disclosure of personal data” as reasons for the decision.
“These actions are likely, in the case of Gabon, to generate social conflict, destabilize the institutions of the Republic, and seriously jeopardize national unity, democratic progress, and achievements,” he added.
The regulator did not specify any social media platforms that would be included in the ban.
But it said “freedom of expression, including freedom of comment and criticism,” remained “a fundamental right enshrined in Gabon.”
‘Climate of fear’
Less than a year after being elected, Gabonese President Brice Oligui Nguema has faced his first wave of social unrest, with teachers on strike and other civil servants threatening to do the same.
School teachers began striking over pay and conditions in December and protests over similar demands have since spread to other public sectors — health, higher education and broadcasting.
Opposition leader Alain-Claude Billie-By-Nze said the social media crackdown imposed “a climate of fear and repression” in the central African state.
In an overnight post on Facebook, he called on civil groups “and all Gabonese people dedicated to freedom to mobilize and block this liberty-destroying excess.”
The last action by teachers took place in 2022 under then president Ali Bongo, whose family ruled the small central African country for 55 years.
Oligui overthrew Bongo in a military coup a few months later and acted on some of the teachers’ concerns, buying calm during the two-year transition period that led up to the presidential election in April 2025.
He won that election with a huge majority, generating high expectations with promises that he would turn the country around and improve living standards.
A wage freeze decided a decade ago by the Bongo government has left teachers struggling to cope with the rising cost of living.
Authorities last month arrested two prominent figures from the teachers’ protest movement, leaving teachers and parents afraid to discuss the strike in public.
