28 January 1999 Edition

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BBC censors ex-prisoners

Michael Ritchie, project manager of the ex-prisoners committee Coiste na nIarchimi, has claimed that the BBC is operating a form of indirect censorship which is keeping ex-prisoners out of the media. He said that BBC producers' guidelines that relatives of a prisoner's victims must be informed before the prisoner appears on radio or television amount to censorship.

Ritchie made the claim after the BBC attended the media launch of the group in Belfast's Linen Hall library but failed to cover it on subsequent TV or radio broadcasts.

Mr Ritchie expressed his concern about the issue saying that the BBC, ``rather than go through the process of locating the family of the particular victim, it appears find it easier to just not broadcast the voice of the prisoner''.

He said that ``this approach makes ex-political prisoners out to be second class citizens'' and amounted to a policy to keep ex-prisoners out of the media.

The BBC told An Phoblacht that there were no official guidelines in relation to broadcasting interviews with ex-prisoners but that broadcasters did operate a policy of contacting victims before broadcasting. A spokesperson confirmed Mike Ritchie's claims when he said they weren't able to contact victims in time for news bulletins about the launch of Coiste na n-Iarchimi.

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