I will be watching Question Time tonight and I do think the BBC were justified in allowing the BNP to take part.
The boycott campaign is facile stuff. It is knee-jerk gesture politics and will simply boost the programme’s ratings.
There is a perfectly credible case that comes to the opposite conclusion. Indeed, my colleague Bart Cammaerts made it brilliantly here on this very blog. He points to the real boost that extremists get from publicity in mainstream media.
I accept that Freedom of expression is not an absolute, so all these cases must be judged on their own merits. In the past I have argued for a No-Platform position. Every media organisation or platform has a right to moderate its own content so can choose not to give certain views any space. All journalists accept that they are subject to legal and social limits. So I am not making a simple libertarian argument. But in this case I think that it is better to have the BNP on the BBC than to ban them.
Firstly, I think in principle that they have a right to be heard.
Secondly, censoring extremists fuels their support and gives them a moral case.
Thirdly, the majority population should not shirk from addressing extremist feelings. In the Netherlands the Establishment ignored any criticism of its immigration policies and ended up with a massive backlash that has ended up by shifting Dutch politics way to the right on race. If they had listened to uncomfortable views early on they might have lanced the boil.
Fourthly, with new media it is impossible to somehow silence extremists. Research at LSE on Jihadists, for example, showed that by closing down their websites they simply popped up elsewhere. The process made them stronger and more popular. Only when then the Jihadists were brought onto the same platform as more moderate Muslims did they have to engage with criticism.
Fifthly, I really do think that the BNP are rubbish and stupid and that generally speaking the more people see them challenged, the more they will be marginalised. I do not think we are in a Weimar situation, and Nick Griffin is not a young Adolf.
Of course, tonight’s programme will be a farce as the other speakers seek to pose as holier than the others. That will grate when you think how from the Prime Minister downwards (British Jobs For British Workers) politicians have been prepared to wink at racist sentiment.
I don’t expect Nick Griffin will have his mind changed by going on Question Time. I accept that his appearance may gladden the heart of racists across the land. But in the long-term I think that allowing him this kind of chance to expose his vile views to public debate will affirm and strengthen the very liberal values that he is seeking to undermine.
If you need more ammunition in the liberal (open) fight with the BNP try this from David Aaronovitch.
Many people aren’t arguing that the BNP should be banned from the BBC – just that Question Time isn’t the right forum to challenge the party’s views.
He’s a democratically elected politician – that makes him fair game for Question Time, sadly. The BBC shouldn’t shy away from this or determine what exposure would best restrict his views; as Charlie says, if his views can’t be tackled or debunked, then the BNP only stands to grow stronger. Denying them oxygen will only drive support.
“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” – Noam Chomsky.
A lot of people are going to get their heads kicked in after tonight. A lot more will get their windows smashed. Even more will get called names in the street. This is what happened after Powell’s Birmingham speech.
Tonight’s Question Time will usher in the BNP’s entry to the mainstream in the minds of many people and Griffin will seize the moment. He’ll be working extra hard tonight to come across as reasonable: his language will be circumspect, his tone measured. His words may ‘fizz like a rocket’.
Jean Marie Le Pen’s Front National were just a bunch of fringe cranks up until about 1984 when the French media started taking them seriously. Then they started making serious inroads electorally and entered the mainstream. Thus the BBC, in trying to make a dry academic point about balance and representation, is in equal danger of legitimising extremism.
The 21st century is going to be a fertile breeding ground for demagogues and fascists as the the fight over resources intensifies and climate change makes large areas of this planet uninhabitable. The BBC is telling the world it’s ok to be fascist.
There are lots of issues being conflated. It is not facile to be concerned that a particular action will have a reaction. It is legitimate to question the effect of the BBC’s decision. For example the BBC chooses not to allow athiests on to thought for the day. But it does have them in other slots.
By inviting the bnp on to question time the BBC have chosen to legitimise racist facist thugs. My grandfather faught the facists on the streets of London in the 30s. This is now aplauded as oppsed to the apeasement movement which is seen a having misplaced optimism in it’s own ability to defeat facism.
We are almost in a perfect storm for facists. Lack of faith in the political class, true crisis in capitalism, rampant cuts in basic services and easy scapegoats in Migrants. We all need to be careful here. As Richard Ford says I am old enough to know that bad things can happen and often do.
Hi Matt & Liz,
You make very strong points but on balance I don’t agree.
I think more people will suffer in the long-term if we don’t face up to the realities of minority support for the BNP and racism in general. Le Pen was not popular because of media attention, it was because he spoke for the fears and bigotry of many French voters.
I don’t think this is Weimar and Griffin is not a young Adolf. I think the lesson of Le Pen is that you should shine a light on facists and work harder to build liberalism.
I think it’s ludicrous to say that the BBC is saying it’s OK to be a fascist. And if Griffin tones down his language then that reflects on the unacceptability of his real views. All politicians adjust their message to suit public opinion, it’s called democracy. I obviously have more faith in the public’s (and the media’s) ability to see through deceit more than you do
I am not sure what Thought for The Day has to do with it, but for what it’s worth I think the BBC should get rid of that slot, too. But QT is not a unique forum that somehow confers authority or legitimacy. If the BNP are on the news bulletins and are interviewed on shows like Channel 4 News or Newsnight then why not QT? It regularly has comedians and actors on, for example, who can’t claim any greater authority or representativeness than Griffin.
For once in my life I find myself in agreement with Chomsky and watching the show I think I’ve been proved right. The real danger today was that the protesters outside TVC could have halted the show and gifted the BNP an even greater propaganda coup.
As it was, he was shown to be a mug and a thoroughly extreme politician.
cheers
Charlie
Charlie,
Good thoughts. I agree the BBC was right to air the views of the BNP on Question Time.
It reminds me of the time — was it a few years ago? — when Channel 4 invited the President of Iran to give the alternative Christmas message. This is the same man who denies the Holocaust and — at an appearance at Columbia University around the same time — denied that homosexuals exist in Iran.
Exposing that man’s views to the world was the right thing to do.
BTW: Here’s the money quote:
“Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want a certain result with all your heart you naturally express your wishes in law and sweep away all opposition…But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas…that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.