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ON one hand: The United Nations, Scotland’s top human rights body, and 1500 arrests – including of pensioners and disabled people.
On the other hand: Nigel Farage, Elon Musk, and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Only one of these lists made it into a sprawling essay on the “simmering row over freedom of speech in the UK” by the BBC’s Nick Robinson . Guess which.
Somehow, across 2500 words, Robinson fails to mention even one of the more than 1000 people arrested for holding up signs at protests against the proscription of Palestine Action as a terror group.
Shocking images of elderly and disabled folk being literally carried away by police for the crime of expressing wrong-think, ignored en masse.
And there is a major difference here. Unlike the far-right ravings of convicted criminals like Yaxley-Lennon, the UK Government’s proscription of Palestine Action has sparked genuine expert and international concerns about limits on freedom of speech.
The United Nations’ human rights chief Volker Turk, in an extraordinary statement in July, warned that Labour had placed “impermissible restriction” on freedom of speech “at odds with the UK’s obligations under international human rights law” .
The following month, the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) warned police and prosecutors that handling of Palestine protests presented a “risk” to people’s right to freedom of expression . “Proscription should not and does not inhibit the right to peaceful protest,” the top rights body warned.
And yet, Palestine Action, Turk’s warning, the SHRC, all were strangely absent from Robinson’s 2500-word essay on “how far restrictions to freedom of speech have gone in the UK”.
In fact, the SHRC’s warning has been absent from all BBC reporting full stop. Not once has the broadcaster deigned to so much as mention it.
In Robinson’s article alone, Nigel Farage is mentioned four times (not including pictures and captions). Elon Musk is named three times (also not including pictures and captions). Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice is in there twice. "Tommy Robinson" once.
US president Donald Trump is name-dropped on multiple occasions too – but absent is any mention of the four people arrested under dubious “malicious communications" allegations after projecting an image of him with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein onto Windsor Castle .
It is pretty clear whose concerns about free speech the BBC is listening to.
The broadcaster’s extraordinary omission of anything but far-right talking points has not gone unnoticed.
Defend Our Juries, the campaign group who have helped organise protests against the proscription of Palestine Action, said in response: “Nick Robinson’s ‘in-depth’ article on ‘free speech’ makes no mention of the 1500 people arrested for holding cardboard signs in recent months…
“Why would it? It’s only the best UK example of state oppression on rights and freedoms in modern times…”
Henry Mance, the chief features writer at the FT, also expressed disbelief at the piece. “What on Earth is this?” he asked. “An ‘in-depth’ BBC article about free speech in the UK that only cites examples of right-wing/ 'anti-woke' speech being suppressed.
“How can you mention Lucy Connolly but completely ignore Palestine Action/Just Stop Oil?
“Gob-smacking.”
It would be, if it weren’t so depressingly predictable.
The next time questions arise about who has the BBC’s ear, let Robinson’s essay stand as an answer.
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