Last
updated: February 2007
Hang
The DJ
Two
Oxford students have received death threats over their plans to interview
British National Party Nick Griffin on university radio station Oxide,
reports The Oxford Student newspaper.
The two radio presenters, who have not been named, were set to speak
to Griffin on Thursday February 8 but Oxford University students’
union (OUSU) stepped in to cancel the appearance on the grounds that
his views are ‘just too offensive.’
The planned discussion was met with a barrage of threats by post and
email.
Student activists warned that they would storm the Oxide studio as a
protest against the far-right leaders radio slot.
In a joint statement made before OUSU’s intervention, the presenters
said, “Since announcing this show, we’ve received threats
from various legions of unwashed little creeps in their mother’s
basement, both by email and now more recently by post. But we’re
not going to be bullied into changing our minds.”
Despite the initial threats the presenters decided to push ahead with
the show. The OUSU Vice-President for Finance, Ed Mayne, instructed
Station Manager Paul Arrich to cancel the interview. Oxide is funded
by the students’ union.
OUSU President Alan Strickland said, “We were deeply concerned
to hear that Oxide had arranged to interview Griffin. OUSU has always
had a no-platform policy for fascist groups like the BNP, meaning that
we deny them all access to any public platform within our control.”
“There is no way we would let a fascist group use any of the student
union’s facilities or services to spread its message of division,
offence and hate,” he added.
On hearing of the cancellation Griffin told The Oxford Student,
“I’m not particularly surprised. I’m afraid that most
student unions are in the hands of a group of far-left fascist cranks.
It’s a shame that Oxford is controlled by this unrepresentative
clique. I hope that the majority of Oxford students will realise that
their student union cannot continue to clamp down on free speech.”
Griffin is one of the most controversial figures in mainstream British
politics.
According to their 2005 manifesto the BNP campaigns for ‘stemming
and reversing the tide of non-white immigration’ into Britain.
He was recently found not guilty of inciting racial hatred after referring
to Islam as a ‘wicked and vicious faith’ in a BBC undercover
documentary.
“Fundamentally, this is not only an attack on freedom of speech
but an attack on Oxford students’ rights to hear things and make
their own minds up,” Griffin added.
BNP spokesperson Dr Phil Edwards said, “These people who send
threats are just part of a totalitarian tyranny. It’s just like
the Soviet Union. They’re going against the spirit of open debate.
Our freedoms are being taken away, we’re turning into a nation
of bloody idiots.”
Despite the protests the presenter duo have stood by their decision
to interview the nationalist leader. “We are firmly of the opinion
that everyone is entitled to freedom of speech, and reasoned debate
is by far the best method of combating right-wing feeling. Stifling
it seems blinkered, pig-headed, counter-productive and stupid. If we
ignore the BNP, it’s not just going to go away,” they said.
Station Manager Paul Arrich said, “Oxide is in favour of free
speech. Figures like [George] Galloway [who was interviewed by Oxide
last term] and Nick Griffin might be controversial, but we don’t
believe that silencing people is right.”
Student Duncan Money, who was one of the students who planned to storm
the studio if the interview went ahead, said, “Someone who advocates
the hanging of homosexuals should not be allowed to participate in a
debate about ‘Britishness’.”
