Pull the plug on fascist thugs - No BNP on the licence fee

Protest against the BNP's party political broadcast
Monday 21 April, 5.30pm
BBC Broadcasting House, 2-22 Portland Place, London
Nearest tube: Oxford Circus

Called by Unite Against Fascism, supported by BECTU

Phone the BBC on 08700 100 222 to complain.

The British National Party's (BNP) party political broadcast is scheduled to take place on Monday 21 April at 6.55pm.

The BNP is standing candidates in the London Mayoral and Assembly elections and will be standing 625 candidates in the local elections in England and 29 in Wales. The party political broadcast will be broadcast throughout England.

The BNP is a fascist organisation, not a legitimate political party, with explicitly racist, sexist, homophobic policies. Only two weeks ago the BNP were again exposed. Nick Erikson one of the BNP candidates in London was forced to withdraw his candidacy, after he was exposed for writing sexist, racist and offensive comments on a blog in which he uses the name "Sir John Bull" visit (www.uaf.org.uk) for quotes from his blog.

We believe the BNP should not be handed free broadcast opportunities to spread their message of hate. There is no legal obligation on the television and radio companies to broadcast the views of any political party simply on the grounds it is fielding a certain number of candidates. As the examples of what happened previously shows, broadcasters can either choose not to show the election broadcast or demand changes to them if they are likely to break the Programme Code.

History shows that fascism threatens the democratic liberties of every person in this country, and particularly those whom the fascists choose to scapegoat: the black and Asian communities, Jewish people, Muslims, lesbian and gay people, those with disabilities, trade unionists, Roma people and many others. In 1999, the bombings in Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho showed where the politics of racism and hatred can lead.

There are precedents to pulling the plug on the BNP:

In 2004, Channel 5 refused to show BNP film in the form supplied and finally showed a blanked out version of the broadcast. Some changes were also required to be made to the version shown in Scotland. Comprehensive editing was insisted on by S4C for the Welsh language version. The BNP's editing of their PEB for broadcast on S4C rendered most of it incomprehensible.

· In 1997, parties needed to stand 50 candidates in the general election for a broadcast. The BNP stood 57 candidates. The broadcasters did not reach a unanimous view of the BNP broadcast and two versions were transmitted; in addition, the BNP was unable to make all the changes required by Channel 4 in the time available, so it was not transmitted by C4.

We invite all those who uphold the principals of equality and oppose the politics of race hate and fascism to call on: the BBC and independent television companies not to give air-time to the racist and fascist views of the British National Party (BNP) in the course of the General Election and local elections this year.

UAF