Legislation giving police the right to pre-emptive arrests in connection with the COP15 climate conference was passed by a decisively split parliament yesterday.

The new legislation allows police to detain those arrested for up to 12 hours under the premise that they ‘might’ take part in civil disobedience. In addition, protesters can be jailed for up to 40 days if police determine the activists have ‘hindered’ their work.

So uhh, that’s some pretty heavy curtailment of freedom of speech… If you’re thinking about having your say at Copenhagen, be sure not to say the ‘wrong’ thing! Or look like you’re thinking of saying it.