CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘BNP’ Category

Wikileaks publishes BNP ‘member list’ (again): “

Haters’ data

Updated The BNP’s ‘membership list’ has been leaked for the second time in a year, it’s claimed today.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Judge bemoans small fine for former BNP officer’s data protection breach: “A man who published the personal information of 10,000 members of the British National Party (BNP) has been found guilty of breaking the Data Protection Act and has been ordered to pay a fine and costs.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Pair arrested over leaked BNP list: “Welsh police have arrested two Nottinghamshire people over last month’s leak of the BNP membership list to the internet.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Liberty and the BNP -Times Online

Liberty and the BNP, November 20, 2008

For the far right to appeal to a liberalism they hold in contempt is pathetic, but there is a strong practical case to defend free association

Last month, a leading Holocaust denier, Dr Fredrick Toben, was arrested at Heathrow on a European arrest warrant. In court he complained that there was a witch-hunt mentality in Germany and that the Germans were out to get him. He appeared not to appreciate the irony of this accusation.

In the same way, it is hard to take entirely seriously the lamentations of the British National Party over the publication of its membership list. Having complained that the publication of the list opened its vulnerable members to violence and intimidation, Simon Darby, the BNP spokesman, announced that the person responsible for publication had made a serious mistake. ‘I wouldn’t want to have done that,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be sleeping well tonight.’ The juxtaposition of plea for sympathy and veiled threat was not, as with Dr Toben, intended to be ironic.

Nor was Nick Griffin, the party leader, employing irony when he announced that he believed that the human rights of his members had been breached and that he might use the Human Rights Act to seek redress.

The exposure of the British National Party’s hypocrisy – appealing to a liberalism that it holds in contempt – is one reason to welcome the list’s publication. A second is that it reveals that the party remains tiny and weak, despite its electoral success. Finally, the breach of security is likely to undermine and distract the party leadership at a time when it might be hoping to use the recession as a recruiting sergeant. Yesterday numerous party members were calling for Mr Griffin to resign.

Yet for those who believe, as The Times does, that liberty is the best defence of liberalism, satisfaction at the blow to the BNP should be limited. The breach of the privacy of members, with the publication of their addresses and telephone numbers, is regrettable. If a concentrated effort were made to prevent BNP members from earning a living that would be more regrettable still.

These concerns are not inspired by a naive belief that the purity of liberalism must never be sullied. They derive from a cool and practical assessment of the advantages to be gained from a defence of free association.

First, democrats gain when political arguments are advanced by open debate and settled by ballot. Extremists prefer threat and counter-threat. Far-left and far-right groups often seek to dominate politics by trying to ban each other and using violence to silence their opponents. In this way they feed off each other. Threats made against BNP members and by BNP members in the past 48 hours illustrate this danger.

Secondly, the introduction of a political test for employment might quickly become a serious blow against liberty. If membership of the BNP is regarded as grounds for dismissal, how long before the same is true of membership of other parties or of certain religious sects? In universities, bans that start as injunctions against members of far-right groups have often mutated to much more serious, and broader, threats to free speech than the far Right itself poses.

This potential for a creeping threat to liberty has to be balanced against the immediate harm that allowing BNP members to be employed in public service might cause. There have been moments in history – the American Communist Party in the 1940s, for instance – when a political organisation is an active conspiracy against democracy and seeks to work inside the State in order to subvert it. Where such an organisation has muscle and finance, there may be a case for a ban. The BNP, for the moment, is thankfully nowhere near such a point.

The defenders of liberty should remain willing to trust the power of their ideal.

BNP list hunters bring down Wikileaks: “

70 hits a second

The Wikileaks website struggled to stay online yesterday because of thousands of people looking for the leaked BNP membership list.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

BBC News: BNP members ‘targeted by threats’

19 November, 2008

BNP leader Nick Griffin: ‘We’re disappointed’

BNP members have told BBC News they have received threatening and abusive phone calls and e-mails after a leaked document was published online.”

(Via .)

BNP leaked list claims first victims: “

Genie + bottle = foot + mouth

The first public sector employees are waking up to the fallout from the leaking of the BNP membership list yesterday.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

BNP membership data breach: the workplace implications: “A list of members of the British National Party (BNP) has been published online, including thousands of names, addresses and email addresses. The party claims that the security breach was likely to be a deliberate act of ‘political malevolence’.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Radio DJ fired after BNP teachers, police and lawyers are exposed in membership list leak | Mail Online: “Radio DJ fired after BNP teachers, police and lawyers are exposed in membership list leak

By Michael Lea and Nicola Boden, Last updated at 3:24 PM on 19th November 2008

* Radio DJ sacked by TalkSport after name was on list
* Policeman also named is put under investigation
* Members ‘receive threatening calls after publication’
* BNP leader alleges calls are ‘dirty tricks’ by Labour”

(more…)

BNP list may lead to sackings | Politics | guardian.co.uk

Haroon Siddique and agencies, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday November 19 2008 12.08 GMT

The list of BNP members posted on the internet contains the details of people in a wide range of jobs. Some employers have made clear that membership of the far-right party is not consistent with their values.
(more…)