The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has once again smeared republicans, linking them to a murder trial in Northern Ireland. The state broadcaster described Colin Duffy, who was acquitted of killing British soldiers, as a “prominent republican”. This was in contrast to the Washington Post. Reporting the same story the American newspaper took the trouble to make clear what kind of republicanism Mr. Duffy follows, calling him “an Irish Republican Army dissident”.
Despite previous complaints about its bias against Britons who want to free their country from feudal institutions and practices, the state broadcaster once again failed to distinguish the small number of Irish republicans who still use violence to end British rule in Northern Ireland from the majority of republicans in the UK and throughout the world.
The publicly-funded BBC is supposed not to show bias in its reporting but has a long history of hostility to republicanism. For long it pretended that it was inconceivable that Britons would oppose the feudal privileges that still prevent Britain becoming a fully democratic nation. Now that that has become harder, it protects the monarchy it loves by not distinguishing those who use violence for political ends from democrats.