Below is a letter we have written to the Director General of the BBC and the head of news.
Dear Mr Thompson,
A call for better scrutiny of the British National Party on the BBC
I am writing to complain about BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat interview with the BNP on Wednesday 30th September 2009.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00mwtbg/Newsbeat_30_09_2009/
Nothing British is an anti-racism campaign seeking to promote gentle British values of tolerance, fair-play and respect for one another. Unlike other anti-racist campaigns we believe that the BBC’s brave decision to allow the BNP a platform is the right one. As democrats we believe it is vital for the BBC to remain impartial, particularly in today’s world. But impartiality is not the same as saying that racism and obscurantism should be left unchallenged.
Yesterday’s interview with the BNP depressingly revealed the plummeting standards of journalism at the BBC in recent years.
Unfortunately, listeners to yesterday’s programme were provided with no context about the two “young BNP” members Mark Collett and Joey Smith. With such a sensitive subject as the BNP, a party mired in criminality and extremist views and violence, framing is important because listeners must not be left with false impressions. But Messrs Collett and Smith were presented to viewers of your web site and listeners to the programme as being “ordinary lads” with simply unorthodox political views.
Mark Collett is not an “ordinary lad” with eccentric and naïve beliefs. As a member of the BNP for over seven years and current Head of BNP Publicity, Mr. Collett is a relatively senior member of the party. And yet, his close associations with up and coming European neo-Nazis were completely ignored. Listeners were not informed about Mr. Collett’s intolerant views on homosexuals, Jews, non-whites and Muslims. No background was provided on his admiration for Adolf Hitler, his disgust for Winston Churchill and his respect for the late Ian Stewart Donaldson, founder of the violent neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honour and former lead singer of the hate rock group “Screwdriver”.
Debbie Randal’s interview with Nick Griffin lacked any suitable scrutiny or criticism of his views on social cohesion, BNP policies or his strong links with international neo-Nazi parties such as Hungary’s Jobbik, Germany’s National Democratic Party (who were recently responsible for beating up a black Briton in Hamburg in front of his wife and three year old child) and individuals such as David Duke, the former head of the KKK, and Don Black in America.
The analysis provided by Dave Howard, Radio 1 political editor, was insufficient and inaccurate. Mr. Howard said the interview revealed how the BNP had more to offer than their “tough immigration line”. The BNP are not just an “anti-immigrant” reactionary party. It is a party whose policies are based entirely on racial hygiene theories dressed up as reasonableness and masked in respectability. The interview totally failed to mention this and left the distorted impression of the BNP being a modern and mainstream party.
We sincerely hope that in future interviews when the BNP are rightfully provided a platform the BBC provides a more robust format, just as you would with mainstream political parties.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and I look forward to hearing your reply.
Yours sincerely,
James Bethell
Director
how unBritish to try and stamp out any debate; Freedom of Expression no longer lives in the UK
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We don’t give freedom of speech to people who will quite happily take it away if they gain power. Those people hate my loved ones and would quite happily see people like me who are in interracial relationships dead.
To be honest I couldn’t give a flying one for freedom of expression when much more serious issues are at stake.
AussieAI, keep your racist freedom of speech for your own country mate, everyone knows how Australia treats non-whites.
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Mark D
I’m a BNP supporter,i don’t care what colour you are, if you love YOUR country the way us Nationalists do,then colour has nothing to do with it.
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marc d , fair dinkum you’re a moron, we treat non whites with preferential treatment, you only have to look at our refugee policy in the last 40 years; we stupidly abandoned the white australia policy invited millions from the world over who now treat us with disdain… sounds like , well it sounds like britain
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[...] More coverage: New Statesman, Harry’s Place, Love Music Hate Racism, Stroppyblog, The F Word, Nothing British. [...]
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Thanks for that I would have missed it otherwise!
But honestly this is a fuss over nothing & what was said here, has been said before.
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‘how unBritish to try and stamp out any debate; Freedom of Expression no longer lives in the UK’
But thats what the main 3 partys are un-British. Also none of the parties that the BNP are supposed to have strong links to are neo-nazi, lets stop using these words when you dont agree with someones opinion, its a bit pathetic now. Especialy when the tories are supposed to be in bed with so called neo-nazi’s in the EU.
The letter is full of stupid buzz words.
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I find the Labour/Tory Party to be abhorrent, racist, repugnant, odious, lying, traitorous,self hating war criminals. The BNP are the party of luuurrve. They love Britain whereas middle class commies hate it. Vote BNP to make things better and don’t believe all the stupid media scare stories.
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The ‘no-platform’ stance has been overtaken by events.
Like it or not the BNP has gained a platform, and it seems to me that anti-racists now have a duty to make that platform as uncomfortable and unstable as possible.
Freedom of speech comes with responsibilty and accountability.
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This is disingenuous, you are not an ‘anti-racist’ – you are anti-BNP. This would make your focus entirely party political except that your emphasis is on the racial make-up of the BNP’s membership and its focus on defending the interests of Britain’s native peoples. Since that emphasis is uniquely targeted at the single organisation devoted to the interests of those peoples, and since you absolutely ignore the hundreds of organisations devoted to the interests of other peoples, you are objectively racist.
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