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BBC is right to allow BNP on Question Time, says Mark Thompson
Robert Booth, the guardian
The BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, today robustly defends the corporation’s decision to invite the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, on to Question Time, and challenges the government to change the law if it wants to censor the far-right group.
Writing in the Guardian, Thompson says ministers would have to impose a broadcasting ban on the party – as Margaret Thatcher did with Sinn Féin in the 1980s – before the BBC would consider breaching its “central principle of impartiality”.
Griffin was not asked on to the flagship current affairs show out of “some misguided desire to be controversial”, he says, but because it is the public’s right “to hear the full range of political perspectives”.
He adds: “It is a straightforward matter of fact that … the BNP has demonstrated a level of support which would normally lead to an occasional invitation to join the panel on Question Time. It is for that reason alone … that the invitation has been extended.”…
(22 Oct 2009)
BNP: Thank you Auntie for giving us such a boost
Fiona Hamilton and Tom Baldwin, The Times
Nick Griffin has thanked the BBC and praised the “hysterical” reaction of the political elite for giving his far-right British National Party unprecedented publicity.
In an interview with The Times, he said that the bitter row over the decision to invite him on to this evening’s Question Time had attracted record donations for the party.
Peter Hain, the Welsh Secretary, understood that his invitation was “a very important symbol”, he said. “I thank the political class and their allies for being so stupid. The huge furore that the political class has created around it clearly gives us a whole new level of public recognition.”
Although the BBC was “institutionally biased” against him, he believed that it had shown a degree of principle in allowing him to appear. “Thank you, Auntie,” he said….
(22 Oct 2009)
10 things you should know about the BNP when you watch Question Time tonight
Cahal Milmo and Kevin Rawlinson, The Independent
…1. Nick Griffin is a convicted racist who said Hitler ‘went a bit too far’…
…2. Party’s constitution is committed to restoring white supremacy in Britain…
…3. Send the Olympics back to Athens – and other flagship BNP policies…
…4. Billy Brit: mascot that glorifies Powell…
…5. Encounters with the Ku Klux Klan in America…
…6. Griffin’s pride in his ‘strong, direct link to Mosley’…
…7. The party membership that dare not speak its name…
…8. The Italian terrorist Griffin names as an influence…
…9. David Copeland: London nail-bomber and BNP member…
…10. Some of those other members who have resorted to aggression…
(22 Oct 2009)
How the BNP came in from the cold
James Macintyre, The New Statesman
The BBC has behaved irresponsibly by aiding the BNP’s arrival in the political and media mainstream. There is now no going back.
This past week marked a great turning point for the British National Party. It officially arrived in the political and media mainstream, aided and abetted by the BBC. There is now no going back.
But was it right for the corporation to host Nick Griffin as a panellist on BBC1’s Question Time? The issue has been extensively debated in the media and behind the scenes at the top of the Labour and Conservative parties. At a meeting of the cabinet on 15 September, the Welsh Secretary, Peter Hain, and Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, found themselves in a minority, arguing that the government should not be “bullied” by the BBC into appearing. The Communities Secretary, John Denham, volunteered to go on, and cabinet agreed that someone should indeed appear. Twelve days later, the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, was selected.
The decision signalled the culmination of a wider discussion within Labour about how to tackle the far right. Protagonists of engagement point to the failure of the French left to combat the emergence of the Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who shocked Europe by coming second in the 2002 presidential elections. But others, including Hain and Johnson, argue that Labour had “nothing to lose” from its “no-platform” policy. “We could have badly embarrassed the BBC by showing it would rather host a fascist than a member of the government,” a minister told me.
Over at the Conservative party headquarters, a meeting of the shadow cabinet was convened to discuss whether to “empty chair” the BBC programme. The shadow schools secretary, Michael Gove, who was initially scheduled to appear, but then was replaced by Baroness Warsi, the deputy chair of the party and a Muslim, was among those who felt that a non-appearance would empower Nick Griffin. So, with Labour and the Tories on board, Question Time’s grotesque stunt ensued….
(22 Oct 2009)
