The NUJ in the newsEXPOSE, a new campaign of media workers and students – journalists, technicians, designers, musicians and actors – has been launched to expose the British National Party as the racists, homophobes, anti-Semites, women-haters and fascists that they are.
Launch meeting
Tuesday 23 Feb, 7pm
Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre
17-25 New Inn Yard
Shoreditch, EC2A 3EA
Last year, the BBC’s Newsbeat programme interviewed two “ordinary” members of the BNP and gave them anonymity. It transpired that rather than being just any old members, the two were leading lights. The BBC has now admitted that it broke its own code in not reporting who the two were and that their views should have been challenged more. Press Gazette has the story
The strategy of denying a platform to fascists will be one of the key issues discussed at the NUJ Left conference later this month.
Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, will lead the debate on the subject brought again into focus following the BBC’s decision to invite BNP leader Nick Griffin onto Question Time.
The NUJ Left conference will debate our response to the far right and our industrial tactics
The BBC’s outrageous decision to announce its intention to invite the BNP onto Question Time has understandably caused outrage on the left.
Unite Against Fascism was quick to condemn the move and has launched a campaign, which it is hoping will gain traction among the unions, calling on BBC management to reverse their decision.
The Centre for Social Cohesion is unlikely to be the first place we look to seek to make common cause.
But a report published recently by the right of centre think tank provides a forensic analysis of the online activities of BNP members and supporters that not only pulls back the BNP’s mask of ‘respectability’, it shatters it into millions of pieces.
by Chris Youett
The NUJ has updated its policy on reporting the far right following the election of two BNP candidates to the European parliament.
Speaking at a conference held at the historic Mechanics Institute in Manchester, NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said now the BNP has two Euro MPs, the need for quality journalism and ethical reporting to expose wrongdoing by the BNP and other far right organisation was more vital than ever.
“We will not be used by the BNP to spread their propaganda,” says Eileen Short, a former Tower Hamlets council PR officer who helped organise a campaign to expose and isolate the BNP’s first elected councillor Derek Beackon.
As part of that campaign, Eileen compiled a list of 10 questions every journalist should ask themselves before reporting on the BNP or other racist and fascist parties.
Strathclyde Police’s investigation of BBC Scotland for incitement to racial hatred over a phone-in show should give editors a wake-up call about how they handle coverage of the BNP.
The case, reported by the Socialist Unity blog, clearly has more editorial than criminal implications as it is unlikely that anyone will be prosecuted.
NUJ Left is calling for mass action to support local authority press officers who refuse to work with BNP members if any are elected as councillors in this week’s elections.
Union guidelines already call on every member not to sensationalise the activities of racist organisations, including the BNP, and to challenge and expose their views.