They're trying to silence the BNP online

I COULDN'T get beyond the headline in The Times report on the Keith Brown murder trial report this morning. "BNP activist fell on knife says Asian neighbour" - I fully expect to read soon that the accused wasn't even at the scene of the crime and was at a meeting of Muslim elders at the local mosque while it was Keith Brown himself, no doubt so busy shouting racist abuse and probably wielding a knife, who tripped over and stabbed himself. This case, or the reporting of it at least, is a farce. Keith is never referred to as anything other than a "BNP activist", yet Mr Khan has never once been referred to as a "Muslim".

My colleague and Freedom contributor Bob Gertner refers me to a report that appeared in the media supplement of The Guardian newspaper on Monday. It mentions Carlos Cortiglia a member of Bob's Croydon branch. Journalist Sean Dobson apparently doesn't like free speech on the internet and even telephoned Carlos last week while researching this topic.

Headed "Platform for free speech ... or hate?" it dealt with the comment sections at the end of articles that are proving popular with many newspapers including the Daily Telegraph and some of the pertinent passages were as follows:

"Several My Telegraph bloggers have trenchant views on political correctness, EU membership and race. One likens the Daily Mirror to an outpost of the Stasi and another blames women for prostitution. It includes posts from active members of the BNP itself. Regular bloggers include Carlos Cortiglia, who stood as a BNP candidate for the Greater London authority in the 2004 London election.
"Unlike Cortiglia, most bloggers hide their true identities behind personas. Telegraph bloggers can choose their own icon. Popular ones include Del Boy, Barry George and Enoch Powell. One called "Lickylips" (who chooses the icon of a pit-bull) publishes BNP campaign literature and flyers.
"Most papers, including the Telegraph, now employ a team of people whose job is to moderate user-generated content. The process differs from organisation to organisation. Some publishers "post-moderate" - in reaction to readers' or editors' complaints or monitoring (The Guardian does this); some "pre-moderate" (such as the Daily Mail) and only allow vetted comments to be published.
"The Telegraph is not the only newspaper to provide such a platform. The Sun also allows its readers to publish their own blogs with its My Sun service (thesun.co.uk/portal/site/mysun). The red-top uses a "reactive moderation" system which relies on its readers to police material on the site. It features wannabe glamour models who post pictures of themselves and invite others to leave comments. The pictures are checked before they go live. My Sun employs a team of 10 moderators who work around the clock. It claims that all complaints are dealt with in 15 minutes.
"Ilana Fox, editor of My Sun, says: "About a year ago BNP members started posting on our message boards. What we found was that our community rallied round and took the BNP to task."
Every Telegraph blog has a flag offering readers the chance to report the link. A spokeswoman says that its site includes content from Conservative, Labour and Ukip activists. "We don't endorse content posted by BNP supporters but we accept that they are a legal political party and they have the same right to free speech as anyone else."
"My Telegraph will be relaunched later this summer but the company has declined to say whether it has any plans to change the site. The Telegraph says: "It's been clear from day one that My Telegraph is a platform for our readers to express their own views. That said, we are a responsible publisher and have a team in place to respond to reader complaints ... Readers can report content that concerns them and appropriate action will be taken."
"Yet one BNP apologist and active blogger on the site described themselves as "poised like a cobra to strike and defend England from the Muslim menace" and no one seems to have complained."

The quote of the report must be Ilana Fox's " . . . our community rallied round and took the BNP to task." What she means is that The Sun's 10 moderators started deleting any postings favourable to the BNP!

And I'm not surprised that our opponents are worried about the use of these Comment Sections in newspapers. During the election I read a ton of them and in the main when the BNP was mentioned it was saying something supportive at best and uncritical at least. It provides great propaganda for us so no wonder there are efforts to have them moderated to exclude comments favourable to the BNP.

The June issue of Freedom is now taking shape and there are some more good stories and photos from our superb election effort on May 1st.