At the time of writing, the three remaining hunger strikers in HMP Bronzefield have ended their hunger strikes. Heba Muraisi did not eat for 73 days, Kamran Ahmed for 66, and Lewie Chiaramello for 46. Day after day, I have begun my mornings frantically searching for a health update for each of them, terrified that they had died. I would scroll through articles about the hunger strikers of the IRA in the 1980s, where 10 people died, and the hunger strikes of the suffragettes where they were force fed in the early 20th century. Considering that this has been the single largest coordinated and sustained hunger strike in the UK since those by the IRA prisoners in 1981, why was the media and government so silent about this?
The British media’s failure to cover this story represents a fundamental betrayal of journalistic integrity. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, trust in British media institutions and news has decreased significantly, with some surveys citing that the UK has some of the lowest levels of trust in the news internationally. The BBC, which credits itself to its impartiality and rigorous objectivity, arguably dominates a great deal of British news. The fact that it is not owned by the government should allow for the BBC to maintain editorial independence and represent the interests of the British people, including its citizens who are starving in prison cells.
With pressure from UN experts, over 50 MPs and 800 doctors signing an open letter to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, and Keir Starmer urging the government to intervene, I think it’s deluded to think that this is not in the public interest or current affairs. The lapse in reporting is clear, but let me put it into numbers to make the point clearer – the BBC took 38 days to even mention the hunger strike. I struggle to imagine how, if an organisation is indeed committed to transparent and rigorous reporting, this silence is justifiable?
When a British couple were held in an Iranian prison earlier in 2025 and began a hunger strike, the BBC met with their son for an interview, and wrote three articles about them. So why were these hunger strikers not given this same platform from the BBC? I focus on the BBC not to imply that it is purely their responsibility to report fairly, organisations like the Financial times have still not even mentioned the strike. But the BBC has undeniably been considered the backbone of British news, with the highest levels of online and offline use and the most trust historically. Despite being arrested before the gross misuse of the Terrorism Act, and with non-terrorism related offences, the prisoners are being held under “terrorist conditions” and were being denied access to medical care. The maximum time which a prisoner can spend on remand according to the Crown Prosecution Service is six months, but Muraisi and Ahmed have both been held for over 13 months.
When we look at the history of hunger strikes it is widely recognised that its power is generated through the shifting of personal agony into social agony, of using the body to call attention to a broader political issue. It relies on the public to succeed. Despite omission by the government and the media, the international response has demanded that attention and revealed the hypocrisy and failures of this government. It seems that in the eyes of the government the lives of these prisoners are valued less than the property they are charged with destroying. Whether because of their label as ‘terrorists’ or prisoners, or perhaps even because they support Palestinian liberation, the government devalues their lives. The government’s response to the hunger strikers exemplifies the cheapening of human life. Not only are planes valued more than the British prisoners in the UK but also valued infinitely more than the lives of Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza.
The last few years have exposed a sort of hollowness of international human rights law and democratic principles. We have seen this explicitly, with leaders like Trump claiming he does not have to abide by international law, and implicitly through the weaponisation of laws around protest and free speech. The performance of Western democracy is collapsing. When property and arms agreements are valued more than human life, when the media becomes uncommitted to reporting truthfully, and when the government responds to individuals who are using the only tool they have at their disposal with such indifference, it becomes clear where the priorities are.
“Palestine Action Protest, London, Saturday 6th September – 05” by indigonolan is licensed under CC BY 4.0.