British TV Station Shows ’Banned’ Election Broadcast By Far Right Party

EUBusiness, May 28

A British television station Friday went ahead with an election broadcast made by a far right anti-immigration party despite earlier banning the footage for fear it could stoke up racial hatred.

Channel Five, a terrestrial network, originally dropped the five-minute broadcast by the British National Party (BNP) which details allegations that gangs of British youths of South Asian origin have drugged and raped white teenagers.

But a new edited version, described ironically by the BNP as “a commentary on politically correct censorship”, was later submitted by the party and broadcast on the network.

A Channel Five spokesman said the new version of the broadcast was “incomprehensible” due to the party obscuring certain words and passages in the commentary with a combination of bleeps and ’wind’ sound effects.

“Having viewed the new version (Channel) Five has reached the conclusion that, though largely incomprehensible, it does not breach the programme code,” the spokesman said.

Similar claims against Asian youths were made in a documentary which was due to be broadcast last week on another station, Channel Four, but was pulled from the schedules after police warned that it could incite unrest.

Political parties are not allowed to purchase television advertising under British broadcasting laws, and are instead allocated a series of short slots on all five terrestrial stations if they have enough candidates up for election.

The BNP broadcast is among a series of election broadcasts being made by all major parties ahead of European Parliament and local elections on June 10.

It was one of five BNP broadcasts to be shown on terrestrial television stations in England, Scotland and Wales this week.

A BBC spokeswoman confirmed that a different version was shown in Scotland on Thursday night and that Welsh and English versions would be broadcast later Friday after being found to comply with the regulations.

The BNP broadcast features the mother of a teenage girl who claimed her daughter was drugged and gang-raped by Asian men in Yorkshire, northern England.

It was based on claims made by the Channel Four documentary, which said that Asian men in the area were grooming and targeting white girls as young as 11 for sex and drug abuse.

The show was withdrawn after West Yorkshire Police said it would risk inciting community disorder.