NEWS

Times man attacked by BNP
Padraig Reidy: members of the British National Party attacked Times journalist Dominic Kennedy after taking exception to an unfavourable article
15 Feb 10

The British National Party has gone to great lengths to distance itself from the traditional “fists and boots” image of the UK far right. But this probably won’t help:

One man grabbed my nose and tried to remove it from my face. I was seized and shoved out of the door towards a parked car. I threw my hands out to steady myself. A BNP thug snarled: “Don’t touch people’s cars mate.” Obviously, I offered no resistance.

I had gone to the Elm Park pub in Hornchurch to report on a press conference at which Nick Griffin, MEP for North West England and chairman of the British National Party, was to explain how his activists had just passed an historic membership reform.

Although I had been invited, one prominent BNP politician had taken exception to an article in Saturday’s edition of The Times. After he lost his temper with me I was quickly shoved and lifted out of the building, hit in the back and had my face squashed.

Read the rest of the Times’s Dominic Kennedy’s account of his assault here

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At Index on Censorship, we believe everyone deserves the right to speak freely, challenge power and share ideas without fear. In a world where governments tighten control and algorithms distort the truth, defending those rights is more urgent than ever.

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