BBC challenges government to censor BNP
BBC director general Mark Thompson says decision to censor BNP must be taken by government
Thursday, 22, Oct 2009 11:54
By Matthew Champion.
The director general of the BBC has challenged the government to censor the British National party if it is unhappy about its appearance on Question Time tonight.
BNP chairman Nick Griffin will become the first far-right politician to appear on the Question Time panel when tonight's episode is filmed this evening.
Last night the BBC Trust rejected appeals led by Cabinet minister Peter Hain to rescind the invitation for Mr Griffin to appear.
Writing in the Guardian this morning, BBC director general Mark Thompson explained that if ministers, including Welsh secretary Mr Hain, were uncomfortable about the appearance then they should consider imposing a broadcasting ban on the party as undertaken by Margaret Thatcher with Sinn Fein in the 1980s.
"Democratic societies sometimes do decide that some parties and organisations are beyond the pale," he said. "As a result, they proscribe them and/or ban them from the airwaves."
BBC trustee Richard Tait said it would have been "wrong" to intervene in a programme not yet broadcast; a move he said would undermine the editorial independence of the BBC.
Mr Thompson explained it was the corporation's "central principle of impartiality" that led to Mr Griffin ever being invited.
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"It is a straightforward matter of fact that, with some six per cent of the vote and the election of two MEPs in this spring's European elections - and with some success in local elections as well - the BNP has demonstrated a level of support that would normally lead to an occasional invitation to join the panel on Question Time," he said.
"It is for that reason - not for some misguided desire to be controversial, but for that reason alone - that the invitation has been extended."