Why hasn't the BBC shown this film?

In two recent posts (here and here) I have written about the 'kettling' tactics used by the police at the Climate Camp at Bishopsgate, April 1.

I have now also looked at the Comments thread of an excellent article on kettling by Louise Christian at The Guardian's excellent Liberty Central (pointed in this direction by Rachael Jolley). There is another very vivid account of events early on in the Comments thread by BethMcGrath. I also came across a link to this film which shows the police in action at the Climate Camp, Bishopsgate, in the early evening of April 1. My understanding - someone correct me if I'm wrong, since we are all still struggling to get the full picture (well, I am) - is that it shows the police at one end of Bishopsgate moving in to form the 'kettle' around the Camp.

Please, please take the time to download and watch the film. If you're a Labour party member, like me, please look past the opening pop at Gordon Brown.

I find the dignity of the protestors, chanting 'This is not a riot' and 'Shame on you', extremely moving.

They represent democracy at its best. A conscientious popular will affirming itself with dignity in the face of arbitrary state power.

So far as I am aware, there has been no coverage of this, or of a related kind, on the BBC over the past few days.

There was, however, a package at the end of the BBC Newsnight Review program on Friday, April 3, on the 'culture of demonstration'. (See the final ten minutes or so of the program.)

Michael Crick's introduction makes a valiant effort to situate recent protest in the history of British democracy.

I will leave it to Next Left readers, having perhaps read BethMcGrath in the Comments thread at Liberty Central, and viewed rikki's film of events at the Climate Camp, to form their own judgment about how much the panelists in the ensuing discussion know about what happened on April 1 or the nature of contemporary protest in general.

Postscript (added April 7): the link to the film at Indymedia wasn't working, so I have relinked to the film at YouTube.

Related Posts by Categories

Widget by Hoctro | Jack Book