Journalist facing ‘Kafkaesque’ probe after police officers knocked at her door over year-old social media post ‘that stirred racial hatred’

A journalist is facing a ‘Kafkaesque’ probe after she allegedly stirred up racial hatred in a post on social media in 2023. 

Allison Pearson, 64, claimed two police officers turned up at her door at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday to inform her she was being investigated over a post on X from last year. 

The award-winning writer told The Telegraph that one officer said ‘I was accused of a non-crime hate incident. It was to do with something I had posted on X a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred apparently’. 

The officer allegedly then said he was not allowed to disclose what Ms Pearson had said in the post. 

But at the time of the alleged tweet last year, the journalist was regularly posting about Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, as well as pro-Palestine demonstrations happening in London. 

Ms Pearson (pictured in 2011) said she was ‘shocked’ to have officers turn up on her doorstep on Remembrance Sunday

Last night, Essex Police said officers had opened an investigation under section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986 relating to material allegedly ‘likely or intended to cause racial hatred’. 

A police spokesman said: ‘We’re investigating a report passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed. An investigation is now being carried out under section 17 of the Public Order Act.

‘As part of that investigation, officers attended an address on Sunday November 10 to invite a woman to attend a voluntary interview on the matter.’

The case was being treated as a criminal matter rather than an non-crime hate incident, police sources suggested. 

Ms Pearson told The Telegraph she was ‘shocked’ to have officers turn up on her doorstep on Remembrance Sunday while she was still in her dressing gown. 

‘I was definitely shocked. Astonished. That too. Upset,’ she said.