Wednesday 19 November 2008

Dear 'sickened' by BNP leader Griffin

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said today it was "sickening" to hear BNP leader Nick Griffin saying he would use the Human Rights Act to protect the privacy of the right-wing group after details of its membership were leaked to the web.
Dear, writing on his blog said: "Like thousands of other trade union and anti-racist activists I'm busy scouring through the BNP membership list which has been published (and is on wikileaks) this morning. I've had neo-nazis threaten me at home, publish my details on Redwatch, the right-wing website designed to target and intimidate journalists and trade unionists, and was once physically assaulted by them and had to go to hospital. The BNP have staged demonstrations outside the NUJ's head office and have issued threats to dozens of our members - particularly in Yorkshire. How sickening to hear Nick Griffin on Five Live this morning say he would use the Human Rights Act to protect privacy when he stands for abolishing the act. Hypocrite."
Professor Adrian Monck, head of journalism at City University, has also been a victim of the BNP. Writing on his blog today, he said: "The BNP once posted my email address on their website. I got 400 emails of varying degrees of unpleasantness...Now the BNP says it isn’t a racist, thuggish party, but I’m certainly glad they didn’t know where I lived. And I’m very glad I now know where they live. But here’s my challenge - who’ll be first to mash up the data and produce a map of the membership?"

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