Apr
27
London mayoral candidate takes BBC and ITV to court over censorship
A London mayoral candidate is taking the BBC and ITV to the High Court for ‘censoring’ his party Election Broadcasts in the run up to the May 1 elections.
The Christian Choice candidate, Alan Craig, has instructed the Christian Legal Centre to file papers this morning (Friday) at
the Royal Courts of Justice after BBC and ITV officials instructed him
to remove parts of his Party Election Broadcast which was aired on
Wednesday evening.
Cllr Craig,
a long-standing campaigner against the 'mega-mosque', due to be built
in Newham close to the site of the Olympic Games, originally described
the organisation behind it, Tablighi Jamaat, as ‘separatist’.
However, BBC
and ITV officials responsible for supervising the Broadcasts instructed
him to moderate his views and change this description of the Islamic
organisation if he wanted it aired.
Cllr Craig
claims not only ‘political interference’ by the broadcasters, but says
such action breeches his rights under the European Convention on Human
Rights, which protects freedom of speech.
According to
the Christian Legal Centre, Cllr Craig changed the word to
“controversial” under duress. Late in the day ITV insisted that the
agreed word “controversial” should be applied to the mosque plans not
to the Islamic group. Cllr Craig’s objections to the mega-mosque,
however, have consistently been related to the nature of the Islamic
group behind the project – the plans have not yet been published.
Cllr Craig
said: “BBC and ITV officials, none of whom were lawyers to our
knowledge, clearly instructed us to ‘tone down’ our views and change
the sense if we wanted the PEB broadcast. The legal language of ‘libel’
was mentioned by the BBC, and in the case of ITV, we were forced to go
back to the studios at the last minute to record a censored version of
the PEB.
“I am
advised that libel is a defamation of an individual, and no-where in
the broadcast do we defame individuals. My comments are reasonable and
moderate and do not contradict the Racial and Religious Hatred Act. The
BBC and ITV are not entitled to limit free speech and I look forward to
the judge ordering them both to broadcast my original message.”
The
Christian Legal Centre will be calling for a Judicial Review of the
BBC’s and ITV’s decision, and ask the judge to order, as a matter of
urgency, the unedited Party Election Broadcast on both channels. The
case will be heard next Monday when Cllr Craig will be represented by
leading Human Rights barrister, Paul Diamond, who represented Nadia
Eweida in the BA Cross row.
HatTip NewEnglishReview
