 |
news item
 21/03/2007
Anti Fascist Media Watch: Urgent Action - complain about publicity given to fascism in the media
1. Le Pen interviewed on Radio 4 Today program 16th March
2. 'Times on Sunday' article featuring the BNP 11th March
In recent weeks there has been a concerning increase in sections of the media giving uncritical publicity to fascist parties rather than challenging and exposing them as fascist and dangerous. The media have a responsibility to report the facts about fascist parties, not provide a platform of credibility to promote their politics of hatred.
Complain about Radio 4's Today program interview with French fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen on 16/03/2007
In the Today program's interview with the leader of the fascist Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen was allowed to defend his views on the Nazi occupation of France being "not particularly inhumane" and was cast as simply an eccentric anti-establishment figure. Le Pen is facing trial for these comments in June in France.
The reality is that Le Pen has described the Nazi gas chambers as 'a detail in the history of the second World War'. The BBC news website reports that he has been convicted of anti-Semitism and racism on a number of occasions. None of this was exposed in the interview. As a public broadcaster, the BBC has the responsibility to present full facts in interviews. We are concerned that the absence of full scrutiny towards people such as a convicted racist at the head of an openly fascist party can have the result of legitimising fascism at the expense of the licence fee payer.
Radio 4 gave has also given unacceptable and disproportionately favourable coverage to the fascist BNP in the run up to last year's local elections.
What you can do:
Complain about this interview and call on the BBC not to repeat this with the BNP (British National Party) in the run-up to the forthcoming local elections.
The interview is available to listen again Radio 4 website.
On Friday the Le Pen interview was the "Top Story" on the Radio 4 Website.
Today's editor: Ceri Thomas Interviewer: Ed Stourton
Phone: 08700 100 222 Textphone: 08700 100 212
Email: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_step1.shtml
Write: BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922, Glasgow G2 3WT
Complain to the 'Times on Sunday' for its article giving coverage to the British National Party 11th March
The Times on Sunday ran an article entitled 'Migration Fears to Double BNP Council Seats' on 11th March overestimating the level of BNP support, claiming they could gain as many as 93 seats. This is impossible as there are only 60 seats where a 5% swing could mean the
BNP take a seat but even this is unlikely. We are concerned that such exaggerated coverage will only aid the BNP in making gains at the forthcoming local elections.
The article fails to expose the fascist nature of the British National Party, referring to it only as an "anti-immigration party". The BNP is a fascist party that has Nazi sympathies, denies the Holocaust and calls for an all-white Britain. None of this was exposed in the article.
The article is riddled with inaccurate and false information: it claims that ASLEF the rail union recently lost a court case for the right to expel BNP members in the European Court on Human Rights, when the European Court actually ruled in its favour.
The article publicises the BNP front for a trade union "Solidarity" repeating the claim of a BNP spokesperson who states "It's a nationalist union but it is not a BNP union. There are a lot of
ordinary working people who don't like the way trade unions are being run." 'Solidarity' is nothing but a front for the BNP and the article fails to expose that "Solidarity" has not met all the requirements to be recognised as an official union.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1496782.ece
There are now over 60 comments on the article thread, mainly supporting and bolstering the BNP, some of which congratulate The Times on Sunday for its fair coverage, and for not depicting the BNP as fascist or pro-Nazi.
What you can do:
Complain about the coverage and ask The Times on Sunday to print a correction on ASLEF
Political Editor: David.cracknell@sunday-times.co.uk
News Editor: jack.grimston@sunday-times.co.uk
To sign up for further media alerts on fascism please visit http://www.uaf.org.uk/mediawatch.asp
» printable view
|
|
