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Anti-Fascist Mediawatch
Unite Against Fascism Media Alert: Daily Telegraph promotes British National Party website
The Daily Telegraph posted an article on its website today (Friday 14th September) entitled "BNP website is the most popular in politics".
The media has a responsibility not to give uncritical platform to fascist groups. Providing uncritical coverage to fascists gives credibility and legitimacy to its politics of hatred.
The Telegraph article reports 'research' from the internet marketing analysis organisation Hitwise who believe the BNP's website is the most visited party political website in Britain and that the reason this is not reflected in electoral gains is that people may view it as an "alternative news source".
Both Hitwise and the Telegraph have sought to gain from promoting a dramatic story but the Telegraph has to maintain journalistic integrity by not giving uncritical coverage to a fascist organisation which is riddled with convictions for violence.
The story fails to mention the fact that the BNP is a fascist organisation aiming to create an all white Britain, something that would be impossible without wide scale violence. Its "alternative" news is based on racist myths and other fascist propaganda, designed to whip up hatred.
The Telegraph website also provides a link to the BNP website which contains racist, Islamophobic and homophobic content.
Please email the Daily Telegraph digital editor edward.roussel@telegraph.co.uk and CC it to the newspaper editor William.smith@telegraph.co.uk explaining that free publicity for the fascist BNP is not the job of any responsible newspaper, that coverage of the BNP must include documenting and exposing its fascist nature and asking for the link to the website to be removed.
Please find below examples of the fascism of the BNP which you can reference in your response, and the Telegraph article:
The BNP is a fascist organisation: The BNP tries to pose as a respectable political party. However, beneath the surface lies a fascist organisation. The BNP has its roots in the neo-Nazi group the National Front and has links with the white supremacist, violent group Combat 18 (18 represents the first and eight letters of the alphabet from the initials of Adolf Hitler). Several documentaries in recent years have exposed the BNP as a Hitler-admiring, white-supremacist and Nazi organisation. Hitler's Nazis annihilated millions attempting to exterminate entire peoples when they took power - removing freedom of speech and the free media was one of its early acts in government. The Channel Five documentary "Neo-Nazi Hate Rock" showed that the BNP receives money from the sales of neo-Nazi hate music and fundraising events.
The BNP denies the Holocaust:
The Holocaust saw the annihilation of millions of Jewish people as well as trade unionists, lesbian and gay people, Roma communities, disabled people and many others. BNP leader Nick Griffin was convicted of incitement to racial hatred for denying the Holocaust in a magazine he edited. In 1998 Griffin said, "I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that 6 million Jews were gassed and cremated and turned into lampshades...I have reached the conclusion that the "extermination" tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie and latter-day witch-hysteria."
For examples of the BNP's links to violence click here: http://www.uaf.org.uk/news.asp?choice=70115 http://www.uaf.org.uk/news.asp?choice=70124
Telegraph article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/13/nbnp113.xml
BNP website is the most popular in politics
By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent
Daily Telegraph website: 11:54am BST 14/09/2007
A website run by the far right British National Party is the most visited website of any UK political party, with more hits than all other parties put together, a survey has found.
Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence service, said that more than seven times as many visitors click on to the BNP's site as for the Labour Party and almost three times as many as for the Conservatives.
The study of over eight million internet accounts found that people who struggle to hold down a rewarding or well paying job, and rely on state benefits and the council for their accommodation were most likely to visit the site.
However, nearly a quarter of the site's visitors are people who have successfully established themselves and their families in comfortable suburban homes.
Young and well educated city dwellers are also over-represented amongst visitors to the BNP's homepage.
The proportion of the site's visitors that come from the middle classes is also increasing: 59pc are from the more affluent ABC1 social groups, and this figure is up from 50pc two years ago, Hitwise said.
Robin Goad, Research Director at Hitwise, said: "Visits to a political party's website are not the same thing as votes in an election and this is borne out by the fact that the BNP has occupied its position as the most visited political party website for two years, but hasn't managed to translate this into electoral success.
"One explanation for the site's popularity may be that people are using it as an 'alternative' news source.
"For example, less than 10pc of people visit a news site after viewing bnp.org.uk, whereas the figure is over twice this (21pc) for the politics category as a whole.
"In addition, younger and well educated people are more likely to visit Politics websites than the online population as a whole, so their interest in the site may well to be driven by curiosity rather than support for the BNP's policies."
With 18pc of visits to the top 10 political party websites, the Conservative Party's homepage is the most popular of the mainstream parties. In August 2007 it received 150pc more visits than Labour's homepage.
Nearly 8pc of people visited Facebook, the social networking site, after www.conservatives.com, and the influence of social networking sites is being felt across the political spectrum.
The 10 largest political parties now receive 5.5pc of their traffic from social networks, and the amount of traffic they receive from Facebook alone has increased 23 fold since the beginning of the year.
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Anti-Fascist Mediawatch
UAF is deeply concerned at the unwarranted coverage
that the British National Party (BNP) is being given in the media
which is disproportionate
to the votes they are receiving. The BNP is a fascist organisation
and therefore we believe it is irresponsible for the media to
exaggerate their support
as this could lead to the BNP being perceived as a normal political
party.
Click here to support the statement against promoting
fascism in the media which is supported by broadcasting union BECTU.
Click here for
Ken Livingstone’s response refuting the claim that
1 in 4 londoners intend to vote for the BNP.
To sign up to receive alerts from UAF on the media please send your email
to address to :
Below are examples of how the BNP is being promoted in the media, and
contact numbers for complaints. Editors take notice of feedback so it is important
to make complaints.
1. Model letter
Dear Editor (Sky News)
I am writing to complain about your recent poll with yougov about
the policies of the BNP. The only outcome of your poll is to legitimise
the views and the policies of the BNP, who are operating in a climate of
increased racism. This is because you legitimise the views of the BNP,
and then draw the conclusion that the lack of support for the BNP is merely
an image problem. The reality is that the lack of support for the BNP is
the fact that they are fascist organisation full of people with criminal
convictions for hate crimes, masquerading as a legitimate political party
in order to gain power. The BNP are making gains by whipping up racism
against the black communities and others who are targets of bigotry. Where
they gain council seats, racist and homophobic incidents increase.
The Media has a responsibility to ensure that it is not promoting
groups that promote hatred, as this jeopardises the rights and safety of
the communities they target. We therefore wish to register our absolute
disgust and opposition to promoting hatred and call on your organisation
to cease doing so immediately, especially as any legitimisaiton of the
fascism of the BNP in the run up to the elections will only aid them in
their ultimate aim, of making gains at the ballot box.
2. Examples
The public
like some BNP policies, but not the BNP
Posted by Anthony Wells in YouGov
YouGov have carried out an experiment for Sky News, asking two groups of people if they agreed with a list of BNP policies. The first group were not told they were the policies of the BNP, the second group were. Unsurprisingly, it found that public perceptions of the BNP drove down support for policies when they were identified as being from the BNP. On average 6% fewer people supported a policy when it was attributed to the BNP, and 6% more people opposed it.
The survey found strong support for BNP policies on accepting fewer asylum seekers (supported by 77%, or 74% when associated with the BNP) and giving priority to British families in allocating council housing (83% support, or 77% when associated with the BNP). There was overwhelming support for making criminals serve their full sentences (91% and 87% support). The question of whether all immigration should be halted provided the strongest contrast - 59% supported the policy, but when it was presented as a BNP policy support fell to 48%.
There was a more mixed view on Europe - 35% of people supported withdrawal from the European Union, with 36% opposed (the 1 point gap grew to a 10 point gap once the policy was associated with the BNP).
There was however strong opposition to more extreme policies on race - asked if they agreed that non-white people were inherently “less British”, only 16% of people agreed, with 68% opposed. When identified as a BNP support dropped to 11%, opposition grew to 76%. A majority also opposed the government encouraging immigrants to leave Britain (52% opposed, rising to 58% opposition when associated with the BNP).
Finally, YouGov asked people if they would seriously consider voting for a party that supported all these policies. In the unattributed group, 37% said yes, 48% said no. In the attributed group the figure is lower, 20% say they would seriously consider voting for the BNP (a figure comparable to the ICM survey in JRRT report that found 18% of people saying they might vote BNP), 66% said no.
What does this tell us? Firstly some of the BNP’s policies - particularly on crime and prioritising housing - are very popular indeed. Despite that a majority of people would not consider voting for a party that allied these policies with the BNP’s stance on race and repatriation. If you actually mention the BNP by name, with all the negative connetations that come with it, the proportion of people willing to support it falls even further.
Contacts for all channels:
BBC
0870 0100 222 (telephone/textphone) http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
ITV
0870 600 6766 dutyoffice@itv.com
Channel 4
020 7306 8333 Minicom: 020 7306 8691 viewerenquiries@channel4.co.uk
Channel Five
0845 7050505 customerservices@five.tv
Sky News
news@sky.com 0207705 3000
Complaints about tv/radio programs and adverts:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/
Complaints about printed media: complaints@pcc.org.uk
Telephone: 0207831 0022
Textphone: 0207831 0123
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