Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Protest Outside BBC Offices in Brighton

Arthur Thatcher | 03.04.2006 21:13 | March 18 Anti War Protest | South Coast

Members of various Brighton Peace groups will hold a small demonstration outside BBC offices in Queens Road, Brighton tomorrow lunchtime.

Members of various Brighton Peace groups will hold a small demonstration outside BBC offices in Queens Road, Brighton tomorrow lunchtime from 12 to 2 Tuesday 4th April. Please come and support us in your lunchtime if you are able.

This is in protest at the BBC's lack of coverage of the anti-war movement in Britain and its role as a mouthpiece of the UK Government at a time when the right to protest and our civil and human rights are being attacked and we are embarked on a dangerous, brutal and illegal war. Similar protests are being held across the country.

It is not a protest against the local BBC at all but is addressed to Broadcasting House.

We will deliver the following letter:

Mark Thompson, Director General, BBC

Dear Mr Thompson,

For the entire duration of the Iraq war the BBC national news coverage of the real war and the opposition to it in the UK and around the world has been pathetic. They have largely become a mouthpiece for the Government and a means for it to get its views across and attempt to make this brutal and illegal war seem acceptable to the British public.

Broadcasting House has appeared to ignore the reality that a sizable proportion of the population of the UK is deeply disturbed by what is happening in the Middle East and at our Government’s role as cheerleader for the US’s bellicose foreign policy. More people have marched in London over the past 3 years than ever before in this country and yet the BBC has repeatedly failed to cover any of the marches in any substantial way. It is ironic that Sky News and ITN with their commercial interests have often covered these events in much more detail.

At the demonstration on March 18th this year organised by ‘Stop the War’ the BBC almost completely ignored the event. The attendance figures were quoted to be around 15,000. Anyone who took part in this march knows that this was blatantly a huge underestimation. These protests took place around the world but again this was ignored.

Local BBC TV and radio coverage of local anti-war and peace events has generally been good and we have very few complaints with their reporting of the Save Omar and anti-EDO campaigns. This protest is not directed at the BBC locally at all but we wish to pass on local anger at the BBC nationally for its favourable bias towards the establishment and the status quo.

To protest in this country requires an almost super-human commitment. Being a demonstrator today in Blair’s Britain increasingly risks criminalisation and requires a hope and idealism that needs to stand up against a media that turns a blind eye to peaceful demonstration in this country. The BBC is fully complicit in destroying the democratic process in this country so that the majority of people in this country now believe that absolutely nothing can be changed by democratic means. For this it should be ashamed of itself.

By not publicising what are, by any measure, substantial outpourings of discontent and anger, the BBC has consistently attempted to reinforce the view that demonstration achieves absolutely nothing – unless of course it happens to be in another country.

Yours Sincerely,

(Signed by members of Brighton peace groups including Sussex Action for Peace, Save Omar, Smash EDO, etc)

Arthur Thatcher

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech