Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Feedback

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations

BBC Radio 4 FM

Feedback: Free speech and Guantanamo reporting

Factual

06/11/2015

Free speech and Guantanamo reporting

BBC Radio 4 - Feedback, Free speech and Guantanamo reporting

Coverage of Shaker Aamer's release, the limits of free speech and Vanessa Feltz.

A debate on free speech with Roger Scruton, why the BBC allowed doubts to be raised about a free man's innocence and Vanessa Feltz's interview with a victim of homophobic abuse.

Roger Bolton hears listeners' views on Vanessa Feltz's interview with a gay man awarded £7,500 by a judge in a landmark case. The man was said to have been a victim of discrimination that was purely non-verbal after he claimed he had been abused by a member of shop staff who used homophobic gestures at him over several months. Some listeners felt that the exchange went too far and forced the man into a distressing situation. Roger speaks to one such listener to debate the line between journalistic rigour and journalistic insensitivity.

Also, when Roger Scruton appeared on Radio 4's A Point of View, some listeners found his advocacy of free speech a refreshing antidote to certain modern sensibilities, but others felt that the freedoms he was endorsing could result in abuse of groups such as homosexuals and Muslims. Roger Scruton discusses the balance between free speech and social equality, and the place of political correctness in the modern age. 

And in the week when the last British resident to be held at Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre, Shaker Aamer, was released after 13 years' imprisonment without charge, some listeners were surprised to hear contribution from a think tank calling his innocence into question. Roger Bolton speaks to the Editor of the Today programme Jamie Angus, to put the concerns to him and discuss the nature of balanced contribution.

Producer: Katherine Godfrey
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Feedback

Free speech and Guantanamo reporting

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4