May 18, 2009

The British National Party today took its first mass media scalp when the treacherous lying The Sun newspaper was this afternoon forced to retract its libellous story about the BNP and the Gurkhas.

Overwhelmed by a determined response from the BNP’s legal department, public anger and peer pressure, The Sun has taken down its online smear story and is now under pressure to print a written retraction as well.

“We contacted the legal department of The Sun at 8:30 this morning as soon as we became aware of the story,” Lee Barnes, head of the BNP’s legal department, told BNP News.

“During the course of the day we engaged in several discussions with both the editorial team and The Sun’s legal department. After we had pointed out to them the various criminal and civil liabilities which the publication of such a blatantly false and libellous article held for that paper and its owners, they agreed to take down their online version completely,” Mr Barnes said.

“At the same time, we succeeded in getting four other newspapers, who had copied over The Sun’s story onto their websites, to unreservedly withdraw their versions as well within ten minutes of the articles going up.

“Three of the editors of those papers actually phoned in personal apologies for putting up the articles, and expressed their anger at the deception of The Sun in putting up the piece in the first place.”

Mr Barnes said today’s victory was the first time that the BNP had taken on one of the large tabloids and won. “When faced with the full extent and consequences of their lies, The Sun collapsed,” he said.

“They - and the other media - now know that the BNP has the ability to take them on and make them pay on both civil and criminal legal levels. BNP supporters can rest assured that we will pursue this to the very end, and will endeavour to make The Sun pay both financially and civilly for the staggering lies they published today.”

Finally, Mr Barnes pointed out that although the day had been arduous, the long-term benefits for the BNP were enormous. “Today’s charade has exposed the media’s manipulations for all to see, and has completely damaged their credibility beyond repair.

“The public has now seen for themselves to what despicable depths the media will stoop to invent lies about the BNP, and all future smears, of which many are bound to come, will be compared to the forged Gurkha one today, and dismissed as yet more lies.”