The BBC has defended its decision to allow the leader of the right-wing British National Party (BNP) to appear on a flagship current affairs program yesterday, saying it was not its role to bar political parties.
Anti-racism groups were planning protests against the invitation to BNP leader Nick Griffin at the BBC’s headquarters in west London throughout the day and two senior government ministers have also criticized the appearance.
Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, said the invitation to appear on the Question Time show was based on the level of support the BNP gained in the European and local elections.
He said it was up to parliament and the government to bar or censor political parties. The BNP, which calls for a halt to immigration, voluntary repatriation of immigrants and Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, won two seats in the European Parliament in elections in June.
It has no seats at Westminster but will field hundreds of candidates in a general election due by next June. Mainstream parties fear it could siphon off voters angered by deep recession and the MPs expenses scandal.
Thompson drew parallels with the 1980s when British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government barred Sinn Fein, political ally of the IRA, from the airwaves.
“Though we argued against it, the BBC abided by the Northern Ireland broadcasting ban in the 1980s, and, if the BNP were proscribed, the BBC would abide by that decision too, and the BNP would not appear on Question Time,” Thompson wrote in an article in the Guardian newspaper.
“If there is a case for censorship, it should be debated and decided in parliament. Political censorship cannot be outsourced to the BBC or anyone else,” he added.
Former military leaders took aim at the BNP this week, accusing it and other right-wing groups of hijacking Britain’s history for their own “dubious ends.”
In response, BNP leader Griffin, who is an MEP, said the party would keep using the imagery and likened the generals to Nazi war criminals.
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