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A conspiracy theorist based in Wales who has appeared as a ‘media commentator’ on the controversial Russian TV station RT, engaged in a public spat with presenter Jeremy Vine, and compared herself to David Icke, has joined countless others in threatening The Eye with legal action, as well as demanding the removal of factual stories about her disturbing background from several years ago.
Anna Brees sent an angry message to our website about numerous pieces stretching back almost five years, stating: “The articles in question contain personal data that are no longer relevant or necessary, and their continued publication adversely affects my personal and professional life”.
This comes after news that her Twitter/X account was apparently closed down following a testy online exchange with Mr Vine over disgraced Alex Belfield, in which Mr Vine said: “It troubles me that Anna Brees is now pursuing me with constant threats…”.
In another post he included a comment from the respected Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) in which Ms Brees was described as having shared misinformation.
The man she defended (Belfield), was a radio presenter for BBC Radio Leeds (BBC RL) who was dismissed for misconduct, convicted of stalking charges in September 2022 and imprisoned.
On 29 July 2021, he had appeared at Nottingham Crown Court (NCC) accused of stalking eight people between November 2012 and March 2021.
Among those affected were:
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Jeremy Vine
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Bernie Keith (BBC Radio Northamptonshire [BBC RN], Valleys Radio [VR] in the 1990s)
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Adrian Allen (the late-night phone-in host on Real Radio South Wales [RRSW] when it launched in October 2000, who has also worked at many other BBC and commercial radio stations)
- Iain Lee (a TV/radio presenter who was also a contestant on ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!’)
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Philip Dehany (a theatre blogger)
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Greg Scott (one of Britain’s best TV warm-up men as well as a distinguished television and radio presenter in his own right)
Others were broadcasters and media executives Rozina Breen, Helen Thomas, Liz Green and Stephanie Hirst.
Belfield was convicted in September 2022 of four of eight stalking charges, and his crimes were grave enough to warrant a heavy jail term – he was given a sentence of five years 26 weeks. In sentencing him the judge in the appalling case, The Honourable Mr Justice Saini said: “Your offences are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified…”.
He continued: “I…(also)…make orders in the terms of the orders before me restraining you under section 360 of the Sentencing Act 2020. As regards each of Bernard Spedding, Ben Hewis, Philip Dehaney and Jeremy Vine, you are until further order prohibited from contacting, or attempting to contact, them by any means whether direct or indirectly”.
Ms Brees, though, has declared: “…I’m truly horrified by what has happened to him…(Belfield)”, and it’s emerged that she had filmed a video with him in London (which has now been deleted) just after the end of the first Covid lockdown.
She added furiously in her message to The Eye: “The tone and content of these articles are overtly malicious and have caused significant harm to my reputation, hindering my ability to secure employment and professional engagements. As a self-employed single parent, this defamation has severely impacted my livelihood and mental well-being. Despite previous requests for removal (There have been NONE!), these damaging articles remain accessible, perpetuating undue harm (The Eye’s lawyers have informed us that any harm or reputational damage comes from the behaviour of Ms Brees herself)
(We have been advised that a ‘right of reply’ was not needed in these circumstances).
“Failure to comply with this request may constitute a violation of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), subjecting you to potential regulatory action and penalties.” (Our lawyers specialising in libel and data protection rules [GDPR] were consulted before publication, and all information is in the public domain).
Yet Ms Brees is no stranger to controversy, and has even threatened menacingly to publish past embarrassing details about a person she dislikes, and walked out of an event where she was due to be a guest speaker after discovering it was funded by RT (Russia Today), although she had herself appeared on one of the contentious channel’s shows a few months before, and has been condemned for showing “blatant double standards”.
One senior journalist said of Ms Brees: “This is rank hypocrisy”. Another told us: “Every journalist worth his or her salt knows that RT is funded by the Russian state. It is blatant double standards!”.
Her YouTube profile proclaims gushingly: ” Anna began her training business in September 2017 and has since trained thousands of students, teaching comms and marketing teams for clients such as Admiral and Public Health Wales to citizen journalism”, however it does NOT include the fact that she has been accused of pursuing a famous personality with constant threats.
She has, too, interviewed for her channel a clinical psychologist, but called it ‘The Cover Up Culture’, suggesting, presumably, that society is hiding information.
She was due to appear as a speaker at the event ‘Imperialism on Trial – Free Julian Assange’ in London and interviewed fellow speaker, the famous veteran journalist, Peter Oborne for her YouTube channel which has now been removed by officials, yet she left soon after discovering the event was funded by RT.
Ms Brees, who lives in Penarth runs a ‘media training business’, and has proclaimed on the internet: “I was a very good presenter”, but says she also wants “good investigative journalism” implying that she provides it.
However she has trained corporations in Public Relations (PR) showing them how they can by-pass the media when ‘good investigative journalism’ thrives on exposing their mis-deeds. As she has put it on RT “the onus lies on us… to decide what information to trust… because I have built up a lot of trust (and people come to me saying) ‘you have integrity’ (but now there is) information chaos”.
Ms Brees has announced on the internet that her journalism is “important” and that she tries to “help people navigate out of this mess (the Covid-19 lockdown)“.
Yet it may not be helping people by showing them bad language on social media, and saying (or repeating) on Twitter/X as she has done: “You can stick your new world order up your arse… Cheered me up this Sunday evening…” with a laughing smiley face used after the comment.
Ms Brees is also keen for members of the public to give her money, and on a fund-raising platform she said she was “creating Investigative Journalism” and “My mission is to protect children, hold the media to account, and expose corruption. Every penny you donate here, will be spent on that” b
Her walk-out came despite the fact that she had earlier appeared on an RT discussion show headlined: “Renegade Inc: Corporate Media Bust Your Trust”, but the YouTube transmission of the programme clearly stated: “RT is funded in whole or in part by the Russian government”.
On the programme she responded to the question: “As a former BBC lifer… do you recognise… (accusations about)… the patronising aspect and patronising nature of the mainstream media?” by saying “it’s very rare that we get any ‘exclusives’ from the (mainstream) media …journalists can be very patronising (but) I WASN”T patronising”.
And that “a lot of journalists out there at the moment … feel they are not representing the public and the news they are producing is … fed by communications departments (Ms Brees trains corporations and teaches comms). I really would like to see these institutions like the BBC listen a bit more to the public …the public are getting very angry …they need to listen more”.
She was at ITV for many years and latterly on the BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) consumer affairs programme X-Ray, but after having a child she has said on another programme headlined ‘BBC journalist exposes the dark side’ that executives “begged me to go back”.
The man she compared herself to, Mr Icke, has warned that the Archons (or Anunnaki) have taken over the world, and that a genetically modified human–Archon hybrid race of shape-shifting reptilians known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, the Illuminati, or the ‘elite’, manipulate global events to help keep humans in constant fear.
Many may not take seriously her message to us, because the channel Ms Brees appeared on, RT (Russia Today), has been accused of being a mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin.
The Economist reported: “It was the cables that gave them away. As foreign and local journalists in Belarus scrambled to report on the latest crackdown on peaceful protesters, one film crew was always in prime position. Its members were untouched whenever police hounded other journalists, stripping them of their accreditation and deporting them. The camera cables that stretched past several unmarked police minibuses led to the source of their protection: a white and green van belonging to Russia Today”.
The RT (Russia Today) host on the programme where Ms Brees was a guest stated that there were: “a bunch of journalists (who) suffer from ‘group-think’”.
Perhaps there is also ‘group-think’ in threatening us with legal action, because so many have now done it…
The memories of our Editor Phil Parry’s astonishing decades-long award-winning career in journalism which was far beyond being a ‘media commentator’, as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Tomorrow – how during that career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), Phil has always been lucky enough to work in a largely free environment and continues to do so now with The Eye but others do not, and that is emphasised today by yet another crackdown on free expression in Turkey, when among many arrested has been several journalists.
