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Regional daily writer denies ‘anti-BNP conspiracy’ claims

Cathy DuffyA British National Party councillor’s husband claimed a National Union of Journalists conspiracy forbids its members from reporting on the far-right party – despite his accusation then being printed in a regional daily.

Maurice Duffy made the allegation during an interview with Leicester Mercury feature writer Lee Marlow, conducted after the former’s wife Cathy, pictured left, lost her seat on Charnwood Borough Council in the recent election.

In the piece it was reported Mr Duffy claimed to have “seen a letter” proving his claims, while Mrs Duffy also criticised the Mercury’s apparent lack of coverage of both hers, and the party’s, activities during her time in office.

Lee, who won the Feature Writer prize at this month’s Regional Press Awards, is himself a member of the NUJ.

In the article he wrote: “(The Mercury) haven’t, it has to be said, done much on the BNP.  There are many reasons for that. We’re a paper in a multicultural city.

“Leicester might not be a perfect example of multiculturalism, but it’s not bad. People here seem to rub along pretty well.

“Promoting the policies of a party which deliberately wants to upset the balance of that city is not something we’re mad keen to do.  We’ve covered elections where BNP candidates have won seats. We’ve interviewed BNP councillors.

“There isn’t a maxim sent out by the editor preventing all reporting of BNP activities. In Leicestershire, there is one BNP councillor. Our coverage reflects that.”

Lee added: “I try to tell Maurice that there is no NUJ-led conspiracy. I am a member of the NUJ.

“They have not been made me sign a contract forbidding me from writing about the BNP, or anyone else for that matter. Besides, if there is a group more depleted than the BNP in Leicester, it’s quite possibly the NUJ.”

Mrs Duffy who still sits as a parish councillor in the Leicestershire village of East Goscote, also presented three ‘facts’ about the BNP from her campaign literature during the interview.

She claimed the party uncovered the grooming gangs in Rotherham, the parliamentary expenses scandal and stopped the bombing of Syria.

Lee told HTFP: “I know there is some consternation in some journalistic circles about interviewing BNP politicians.

“But if we don’t, then we let lies like this go unchallenged.

“The three BNP ‘facts’ in her election leaflet – particularly the one how the BNP exposed the MPs expenses scandal – were also risible.”

When asked for a comment on the matter by HTFP, Mrs Duffy responded with a link to the ‘Reporting the BNP’ website, which contains a link to the NUJ’s own site.

An NUJ spokeswoman told HTFP the union advises members to refer to its code of conduct and guidelines on dealing with race relations.

15 comments

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  • June 1, 2015 at 9:31 am
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    The NUJ hand book was well known to BNP members and staff – it quite clearly stated that journalists were to always report negatively on matters relating to the BNP. As to the current, reworked NUJ code that “information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair….differentiates between fact and opinion” that is certainly not the case. Just routinely describing the BNP as “racist” without a clear definition is a case in point. Press reporting on the BNP accentuates any apparent bad points – photos of “skin heads” even when they are not even BNP members. It goes on…

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  • June 1, 2015 at 9:41 am
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    Utter twaddle from the fascists. I’ve spoken – and quoted – BNP Councillors and activists in my time, and I was a union rep.

    Yesterday’s men.

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  • June 1, 2015 at 10:19 am
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    In the fullness of time, the BNP will be the only democratic political party with the answers to the increasing loss of national culture and identity of the indigenous British people. Establishment parties are simply not allowed to do anything positive, and leftist parties are part of the problem, aiding and abetting mass immigration and loss of identity. The fates of the indigenous people of Australia, America etc are well known to all, as is the ultimate fate of all artificially created multi cultural, multiracial societies which have failed and ended in chaos (the former Yugoslavia, Ulster, Palestine and parts of inner city America are good examples). When did any government have a mandate from the electorate to replace the native population of Leicester, reducing them to a minority, by non native peoples in the space of two generations?

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  • June 1, 2015 at 10:21 am
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    The BNP cannot be treated as “just another political party” as they will try to propagate myths, untruths and distorted half-truths as facts and as policy. Journalists who are critical of them and other far right groups have faced aggression and intimidation. The NUJ policy is to urge journalists to not treat the BNP as any other party but to properly put what they say and do under rigorous journalistic scrutiny. As a party, they rely on getting their lies and distortions through without question. So yes, NUJ members do report on BNP activities but are urged to put them in their proper context and with appropriate exposure to their size as a party. This story clearly illustrates the point: claims (that the husband of a defeated councillor ‘has seen a letter’ – unproduced – from the NUJ forbidding its members on reporting on the BNP) that are completely groundless getting published to feed the BNP conspiracy narrative.

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  • June 1, 2015 at 10:36 am
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    “The BNP cannot be treated as “just another political party” as they will try to propagate myths, untruths and distorted half-truths as facts and as policy.”

    The same can be said of all political parties, surely? Everyone has to be treated the same otherwise you risk creating martyrs.

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  • June 1, 2015 at 11:17 am
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    After the last election, it has become clear that all the main political parties need very careful scrutiny on the same basis as the BNP, especially the Tories & UKIP. As for the BNP being “In the fullness of time…the only democratic political party with the answers to the increasing loss of national culture and identity of the indigenous British people”… Dave Jones, were you even awake during the last election? UKIP have nicked that line, mostly without beating people up. Your lot are a totally busted flush!

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  • June 1, 2015 at 12:02 pm
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    Well said Kendo Nagasaki. There is a concerted campaign in the UK to attack press freedom, being waged to some extent across the entire mainstream political spectrum.

    The media has a duty to reflect the views of all political parties, even if some of those views are reprehensible.

    I believe the NUJ supported the discredited and (so far mercifully unsuccessful) attempt to impose the kind of press regulation favoured by the luvvies of the Hacked Off pressure group.

    so perhaps I should not be too surprised – should oppose freedom of speech when it does not accord with its own political point of view.

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  • June 1, 2015 at 2:12 pm
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    Mrs Duffy is correct when she said the BNP uncovered the Rotherham
    grooming scandal, the vile Labour party and the BBC tried to get former
    BNP leader Nick Griffin sent to prison for exposing them. Nick Griffin
    also stopped Cameron bombing Syria, he wrote the letter for their
    President to send to the British parliament. Why are the BNP called
    racist for representing the British people which is what a political party
    in Britain is supposed to do? The three main parties all sing from the same song sheet. The outright lie that the BNP “beat people up” is
    laughable, it is the UAF, the government thugs who do the beating
    up. BNP councilors do more for their constituancy than other parties, FACT.

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  • June 1, 2015 at 3:59 pm
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    @BNP supporters – if even half of the people who comment under newspaper articles online (who appear to share your views) actually went out and voted, you guys would be strolling into power. If they spent less time mucking around on the Internet and more time turning up at polling stations you’d be laughing.

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  • June 1, 2015 at 6:45 pm
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    I abandoned the NUJ in the 1970s when, instead of promoting their members’ interests, they were obsessed with supporting the IRA and Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
    I recall attending a ‘right wing’ splinter group meeting over a pub in London when a couple of left-wing scruffs in bomber jackets and scuffed sneakers gate-crashed proceedings to announce we were a lost cause and that the Marxists were taking over.
    Both these bums had tenuous links with real journalism – they were subs on the low-circulation Trotsky Tribune or some equally idiotic publication – but revelled in their power as NUJ ‘operatives’, hell-bent on subverting democracy in pursuit of their squalid views.
    Looks like things haven’t changed a lot over the last 40 years.

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  • June 2, 2015 at 1:27 pm
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    I’m proud to be a life member of the NUJ and have nothing but praise for it, particularly when it helped me through some very delicate redundancy negotiations. Over my 40 years in the industry, I’ve tended to find those who sneer at trade unions are not against taking the advantages they have gained.

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  • June 3, 2015 at 9:04 am
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    To Chris Morley, Manchester NUJ – he says “The BNP cannot be treated as “just another political party” as they will try to propagate myths, untruths and distorted half-truths as facts and as policy” – the problem is that reporters are not interested in what official BNP spokesmen tell them, instead they prefer to ignore policy statements in favour of ad hominem attacks. For example, the media ignore alternative reasons for disproportionate numbers of non indigenous prisoners in UK prisons, preferring discrimination and “racism” in the criminal justice system instead as the sole cause. And when did the media offer a platform to indigenous Brits to explain their rational and considered opinions and fears about mass immigration? Indeed, when did the media even consider the existence of indigenous British people, preferring their myth of “a nation of immigrants” or a “mongrel race”? The media have a lot of explaining to do.

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  • June 5, 2015 at 8:49 am
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    Oh David Jones….please… The Daily Mail? Sun? Daily Express? Star? Daily Telegraph? Endless, endless articles in these papers hostile to immigrants (and hostile to people descended from immigrants) and still you play the victim and pretend “the media” is out to get you and your BNP mates.

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  • June 5, 2015 at 10:08 am
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    Golam Murtaz – that’s a very interesting observation, but whilst the Mail, Sun etc appear to be “hostile to immigrants and hostile to people descended from immigrants” their agenda is quite different to that of the BNP. Specifically they (the press) use the populist, sensational nature of people’s natural hostility to immigrants simply to increase their circulation, whilst at the same time maintaining a visceral pro multicultural and anti racist ethos. By contrast, the BNP are not interested in popularity but are concerned with opening a wide public debate about the pros and cons of mass immigration, a topic well off the mass media agenda. That’s why trade unions are against the nationalism of the BNP and favour the internationalist agenda instead.

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