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
