>From MCELROY@zodiac.rutgers.edu Thu May  6 17:37:42 1993

The following is a statement by Bernadette Devlin following her
banning from the BBC Thanks to Mark Holohan for posting it to
reg.ireland.

 
          Bernadette Devlin:  Banned by the BBC 
 
  The decision of the BBC to invoke the Broadcasting ban in relation to 
my contribution to the "Nation" programme marked an extension of this 
abhorrent legislation into the area of reporting and commentary.  A 
number of features of the entire disturbing and distasteful episode are 
particularly alarming.  I recorded my contribution ten full days before 
broadcasting.  The final programme was a grossly simplified distortion 
of an excellent studio discussion.  However, despite the decision of the 
BBC to subtitle my entire contribution, neither the programme-makers nor 
the BBC informed any of the participants in the programme of this 
proposed action. 
  I was anonymously alerted to the reality of what the programme was at 
11 o'clock the night before it was to be shown.  I immediately made 
efforts to contact the programme makers who had in effect gone to 
ground.  On my behalf, [attorney] Gareth Pierce was in contact with the 
BBC who refused: 
 - to postpone the programme, until I had seen the edited contribution 
 - to examine the unedited recording 
 - to reconsider their decision to subtitle 
 - to remove my contribution from the programme. 
 
  The public perception of the ban is that it is a "Sinn Fein" ban.  The 
overwhelming majority of subtitled broadcasts have involved elected 
representatives of Sinn Fein.  It is also perceived as the 
"anti-violence" ban, silencing those who are paramilitary representatives, 
or advocates of "political violence".  By a single broadcast, I was 
categorised, in the minds of millions of people from as "one of those 
people from whom society requires protection".  Why?  Mr. Cox the 
programme producer, whose exact role and motivation in creating the 
situation remain unclear, blames the BBC. 
  The BBC, in turn, blames the government, and the government, as in the 
road-signs at military check-points, blames "the terrorist".  Of no 
relevance to the BBC, its lawyers, Juniper Productions, David Cox, or 
the British Government is the small matter of my basic human right to 
speak, to be heard or, indeed, my right to security of person. 
  Of even less relevance was my reputation as a human rights activists, 
a non-violent campaigner of twenty three years standing, a political 
commentator and analyst of Irish and internation human rights issues. 
That is not to blow my own trumpet.  It is to put in perspective the 
enormity of the BBC action.  Their only defence has been that they acted 
on their lawyers' advice.  Their lawyer's defence is that they were only 
"doing their job".  It is not the job of lawyers to police the state. 
It is no the job of lawyers or broadcasters to violate the human rights 
of citizens in order to police the state. 
  I have no legal redress in this matter of the violation of my rights. 
No law enforcement officer, or agency, no Court or member of the 
judiciary, no Government authority stated that I, Bernadette McAliskey, 
should not be permitted to state my analysis of the causes of political 
violence in N. Ireland on the airways.  Some faceless lawyer doing his 
job dictated my fate, in the interest of the Government, its ideology, 
and its advancement.