BBC bans Kilroy-Silk in "racism" row

Telegraph - uk ^ | January 10 2004 | Tom Leonard, Media Editor

[Brian Allen]

The British Broadcasting Corporation ["BBC" -- uk-Taxpayer-funded Propaganda Arm of the uk's Labour Party -- B A] suspended its Kilroy programme yesterday after the "Muslim Council of Great Britain" and "other groups" professed "outrage" that the presenter, Robert Kilroy-Silk, had written a newspaper article which, the protesters claimed, "attacked Arabs."

Yesterday's edition of the BBC daytime discussion show went ahead but it will not appear from Monday while allegations of racism over the article in the Sunday Express are investigated.

Embarrassingly for all involved, it emerged that Kilroy-Silk, a regular columnist, actually wrote the piece for the paper nine months ago but nobody had seemed to notice.

A BBC statement said it "strongly disassociates itself" from the former Labour MP's comments.

"We stress that these comments do not reflect the views of the BBC. The BBC is taking the Kilroy programme off air immediately while we investigate this matter fully."

In a piece, headed "We owe Arabs nothing", Kilroy-Silk claimed they had contributed nothing to the world apart from oil and referred to them as "suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors".

He added: "What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 then danced in their hot, dusty streets to celebrate their murders?"

Last night, Mr Kilroy-Silk said: "I greatly regret the offence which has been taken at the article published in last weekend's Sunday Express. The article contains a couple of editorial errors which I also regret."

He added that the article was first written in April and had been "republished last weekend in error".

"When the article was originally published last year, it caused no comment or outcry and, I was told at the time, generated only a couple of letters to the paper," he said.

"I would never have wished it to be re-published in this manner and it is not what I would have said today." He said the article had caused offence because it had been taken out of the context in which he wrote it.

"It was originally written as a response to the views of opponents to the war in Iraq that Arab states loathe the West and I referred only to 'Arab states' and not to 'Arabs.'

"Out of that context and edited, it has obviously caused some to have taken great offence and I can only reiterate that I very deeply regret that."

"The Muslim Council of Great Britain" and "other groups" wrote to the BBC, claiming the article was "racist" and made Kilroy-Silk unsuitable to present his show. The programme, which has run for 17 years and attracts 1.2 million viewers, usually focuses on family, health and relationship matters.

Lynne Jones, a Labour MP, called in the Commons for the state-owned BBC to sack Kilroy-Silk, while the "Commission for Racial Equality" referred the article to the police to see if there were grounds for a prosecution for 'incitement to "racial" hatred.'

Trevor Phillips, the CRE chairman, said he would be "very surprised and disappointed" if Kilroy-Silk was on television "any time in the near future". The presenter was in talks yesterday with the BBC, which said it would decide the future of Kilroy-Silk and his show within the next month.

Although the show is thought unlikely to survive as it is, the BBC's options are complicated by the fact that its contract is not with the presenter but with a production company which is largely owned by Kilroy-Silk.

A spokesman for the Sunday Express, which is owned by Richard Desmond, refused to comment on why it republished an old article. He accused the BBC of "gagging free speech" and "grossly over-reacting".

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004

[Brian Allen]

..... except that some animals are more equal than others .....

[Brian Allen]

Ping

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[Eowyn-of-Rohan]

I don't recall the BBC having any problem with British muslims criticizing and threatening the US

[toomuchcoffee]

Well, what have the arabs contributed besides oil?

[PokeyJoe]

Somebody call O'Reilly. This is an interview waiting to happen.

[Mears]

Looks like freedom of speech is on life support in the UK---sad!!!

[JennysCool]

Seee heah!!! We can't have us none of that nasty TRUTH-TELLIN' goin on! This is WAR!

[scotsman1]

I suggest you go to the earlier(now 40+ posts)thread on this subject.There you will find my posts on Arab contributions to world culture.You might learn a thing or two and find it interesting.

[Buck W.]

Algebra and place value, much to the dismay of JHS and HS students.

[pau1f0rd]

"BBC" -- uk-Taxpayer-funded Propaganda Arm of the uk's Labour Party -- B A

The BBC is the most powerful anti-conservative group in the UK, which is why I want to correct this statement.

The BBC is not taxpayer-funded.

The BBC is not a propaganda arm of the Labour Party.

[Viet Vet in Augusta GA]

The BBC is funded by an annual license fee on tv sets, which is a tax.
While it is not officially an arm of or spokesman for the Labour Party, it occupies a position on the ideological spectrum like NPR in the US.

[SJackson]

The BBC is funded by an annual license fee on tv sets, which is a tax. While it is not officially an arm of or spokesman for the Labour Party, it occupies a position on the ideological spectrum like NPR in the US.

Thanks, VV. I was about to raise that question about BBC funding with pau1. Not a tax, rather a "fee" levied on TV sets, now I get it, the government has nothing to do with it :>)

[lambo]

You might want to go see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1054764/posts as well. I'm fighting the same battle as you there, but I don't think we're winning.

[lambo]

Well, that was supposed to be a link. I guess I still don't know how to do that.

[Dan Evans]

You might want to go see

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1054764/posts

as well. I'm fighting the same battle as you there, but I don't think we're winning.

[lambo]

Thanks, Dan.

[Mullah-Killer]

I don't know if anyone has noticed this , but when Arabs are attacked for contributing Nothing, the UK Muslims jump up and down and shout "Islam has been insulted by the infidels..." Knowing fully well the the Muslim council of Britain is run by a bunch of Fanatic and unemployed (and unemployable!)Pakistani Muslims, and funded by the Saudis, it is not surprising to see that it becomes forbidden for anyone making any criticism of the Arabs! Yes, let me say it loud and clear, Arabs have not contributed anything to this world, they just conquered lands and raped and pillaged civilised lands like Persia, Egypt and took their acheivments under their own name!

[Brian Allen]

<< I suggest you go to the earlier(now 40+ posts)thread on this subject. >>

Thread got a name -- or a link?

[Brian Allen]

<< The BBC is the most powerful anti-conservative group in the UK, which is why I want to correct this statement.

The BBC is not taxpayer-funded.

The BBC is not a propaganda arm of the Labour Party. >>

Wrong.

The bbc is funded by a madatory "licence fee" -- a Tax by any other name.

As well, the [Coincidently pathologically-hesperophobic, Arabist and viciously anti-semitic] bbc is and always has been the principle primary propaganda organ of the forces of socialist-internationalist totalitarianism in once great britain, best represented by the core Labour Party which, despite the distraction provided by the temporary aberration represented by the execrable and KKKli'tonesque Tiny Blair's "third way" [Third rail?] smoke and mirrors Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey flim-flam-ism, still pushes for absolute state ownership, operation and control of all of the means of production and/or manufacture and distribution and sale of everything!

Bump/Ping