Seven arrested after Extinction Rebellion spray green pain over The Telegraph, The Sun and Daily Mail offices

Seven Extinction Rebellion activists have been arrested after throwing green paint at several newspaper offices in London over their climate coverage.

Protesters unveiled banners reading “Tell the truth” on Wednesday (22 March) and said they had taken action because they believed the news outlets, including the Daily Telegraph and the Sun did not cover the climate crisis sufficiently - and dismissed the recent IPCC report.

In a tweet by Extinction Rebellion, the group said the Telegraph had called the climate report “nothing but confected hysteria”, while the Daily Mail accused the report’s authors of using “hysterical language”.

The group added that The Sun’s coverage of the report was “less than half a column on page 2”.

More than a dozen police officers arrived on the scene of the protest at the Telegraph’s offices in Buckingham Palace Road where three arrests were made.

Metropolitan Police confirmed officers arrested two outside the Mail’s HQ on Derry Street in Kensington and another two outside News UK’s offices in London Bridge Street.

A spokesperson from the Met Police said: “All were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.”

The protest comes a month before Extinction Rebellion will attempt to rally thousands of people across four days for a demonstration called, ‘The Big One’.

It will take place outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster from 21 to 24 April with climate groups, unions and charities all backers of the event.

‘We believe the national press are not telling the truth’

Sarah Montgomery, 72, was among the Extinction Rebellion protesters holding a banner outside The Telegraph offices.

She told the newspaper: “We’re here because we believe the national press, including this newspaper whose offices are behind us, are not telling the truth about the extent to which we are in a climate emergency.

“And if that were happening the government would be forced to be doing some very different things from what it’s doing at the moment, which is clearly not enough.”

Tom Masters, an activist with the group from Bristol, said: “Extinction Rebellion demands that people tell the truth about the climate emergency.

“This shouldn’t be too much to ask of a national newspaper that exerts significant influence over its readership and over the British government.”

Steve Tooze of Extinction Rebellion and former Sun and Daily Mail journalist, said “the mainstream media has a major role to play in delivering the truth to the general public about the climate and ecological emergency.”

He added: “They could and should be helping all of us come together around the clear need for change and providing people with the facts so we can work out how to transition away from fossil fuels and build a future that is safer, fairer, better for everyone. Instead, their business model thrives on division and click bait culture that sets people against one another.

“Extinction Rebellion is saying we’re not going to accept this anymore. The mainstream press has a responsibility to help people find a way to achieve this rather than profiting from our division.”