Trinity Mirror has made an out-of-court settlement with the British National Party after a breach of copyright in an article published last November.
The piece included a picture of BNP West Wales party organiser Roger Phillips, taken by a party official, which the BNP said was taken from Facebook without permission.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has launched a new website, http://www.reportingthebnp.org/, in a bid to inform reporters about the political tactics of the British National Party (BNP) in the run-up to the general election.
The NUJ said:
Reporting the BNP gives information on what the BNP actually stands for, with detailed facts and arguments to counter the far-right organisations’ unfounded claims.
“Challenging the fascist politics of hate is a job for every fair-minded person in our society, not just a task for committed activists. NUJ members are proud to play our part in exposing the myths on which modern Nazis seek to gain power,” said NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear.
The launch of the site comes just ahead of the protest scheduled for Tuesday, in which journalists will come together for the EXPOSE campaign: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, columnist and broadcaster; Mehdi Hasan, political senior editor for the New Statesman; Sunny Hundal, editor of the Liberal Conspiracy blog; and Peter Hain, secretary of state for Wales are among the figures speaking.
Supporters of of EXPOSE also wrote a letter to the Guardian this week outlining some of the reasons for the campaign:
The assault on the Times’s investigations editor Dominic Kennedy on Sunday (Report, 16 February) reveals the methods the BNP will employ to prevent the party’s activities being reported. Intimidation and violence are part of the BNP leadership’s stock in trade. The BNP cites “free speech” to demand access to the mainstream media – yet the party is an enemy of free speech. The BNP’s inflammatory rhetoric about immigration cannot be taken at face value. It abuses free speech to incite racial and religious hatred. A robust approach to covering the BNP is therefore essential.
The Times reports in its leader how one of its reporters, Dominic Kennedy, was expelled from a BNP meeting yesterday. The newspaper also claims that the reporter was assaulted.
Mr Kennedy was not attending the meeting covertly. He had expressly been invited to report on it by Simon Darby, the party’s national press officer. On pointing this out, Mr Kennedy was physically ejected.
Kennedy’s account at this link…
Also see: BBC News video.
BBC newsreader George Alagiah believes the failings of the media have partly led to the party’s electoral success, he said at an LSE lecture last Friday.
Talking about news and identity at the Polis event, Alagiah, who currently presents the Six O’Clock News & World News Today on BBC World News, said that the media had concentrated too much on looking at differences and had not given enough of a voice to those with reasonable concerns about immigration. “I am uncomfortable with a white-only party on Question Time,” he said.
“I think the emergence of the BNP as an electoral presence in our country poses a challenge to the way in which both the political and media classes in Britain have dealt with the issues of race, identity and culture,” he added.
“There was far too much emphasis on difference and not enough emphasis on the values that unite us together as a nation. I think that there was an accidental, unintentional relegation of the concept of Britishness and when we let it go it went and found a home in the recesses of extremism here in Britain.”
The newsreader added that people asking reasonable questions about the speed of change in communities caused by immigration had been wrongly ‘slapped down as racist’. “Journalists have failed to see this sense of disempowerment amongst white working class people,” he said.
Regional news organisations have a role in tracking changes in communities and helping people to understand them, Alagiah said, adding that investment in local media was vital. “When organised well-funded regional news-gathering is in retreat, hearsay fills the gap, and this is all the more likely in the age of the blog.”
John Stevens is a postgraduate newspaper journalism student at City University. He blogs at http://bit.ly/on-the-fly.
Amid much controversy the BNP’s Nick Griffin made his BBC Question Time debut last night. Now, having seen or read about the transmitted programme, do you think the BBC was right in its judgement to invite him on? Please take part in our poll and leave additional comments about the programme below:
Food for thought ahead of BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on tonight’s Question Time (#BBCQT if you’re following on Twitter).
If you missed Kenan Malik’s Radio 4 Analysis ‘Who’s Afraid of the BNP’ programme on September 28, you can read the transcript on his website or listen to it again here.
Some provocative material from its selection of contributors. Among them was Nick Griffin, who was challenged on his comments about the Holocaust and his party’s admission procedure.
Views were mixed about Griffin’s invitation onto Question Time. Writer and economist Phillipe Legrain was in support of the BBC’s decision:
“Freedom of expression is not something that you only give to people who you agree with, but, just as importantly, to people who you don’t,” Legrain said.
“Frankly, I think the BNP appearing on Question Time will be fantastic. Nick Griffin is going to get caught out. He’s going to sound stupid, he’s going to sound extremist. That kind of exposure is actually the best way to combat the BNP.”
BBC Trust intervention in the BBC’s decision to allow BNP leader Nick Griffin onto Question Time would be at odds with the corporation’s constitutional arrangements, the regulatory body has said.
Therefore the Trust will not hear appeals, and complaints can only be made after transmission. The release stated:
“They [ad hoc Trust committee] took the view that the Charter and Agreement establishes the director-general as editor-in-chief of the BBC – the individual responsible for the editorial content of BBC programmes.”
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) opposes the BBC’s decision to invite the leader of the British National Party (BNP) onto its Question Time programme, the union has said in a release.
“The union argues that the format of the show does not allow the BNP’s dishonest propaganda to be properly challenged.”
According to the Guardian, a new leaked list of British National Party members will be published by a website today.
The unnamed site insists the list, which includes names, addresses, postcodes and telephone numbers, is genuine and represents membership of the party as it stood in April this year.
The data leak would be the second in a year for the party after details of members were released online last November, raising debate about news organisations handling of the data and whether such documents should be linked to.
The party has suggested that the release of new information could be an attempt to undermine the appearance of its leader Nick Griffin on the BBC’s Question Time programme this week. Download PERISCOPE PORN free now
Roy Greenslade first picked up on this one at the beginning of the month when he commented on how the BBC had used BNP comments in its Radio 1 Newsbeat programme, and on its site.
Now Peter Hain, the Welsh secretary, has condemned the BBC’s handling of the interview and the BBC faces calls for an internal investigation after it received more than 100 complaints, MediaGuardian reports.
Meanwhile, FleetStreetBlues has some sympathy for the BBC reporter:
“The report has been criticised widely for introducing two interviewees as ‘two young guys who are members of the BNP’ without stating that they were prominent party members and one was the BNP’s publicity director.
“No, it’s not great journalism, but we’ve all done it. Interviewed a ‘Man Utd fan’ who turns out to editor the Man Utd fanzine. Quizzed a donkey-loving member of the public who turns out to run a donkey sanctuary. Sought grassroots student comment from the local student union.
“The news editor wants authentic BNP comment and he needs it by 10am? Sorry, going for comment via organisations and then dressing it up as someone we just happened to meet on the street is what reporters do. You don’t give us time for anything else.”