Shaken not stirred

During a 23 year career with the BBC, and 41 years in journalism, (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, empty threats of legal action as well as extraordinary abuse were rare at the beginning, but are now commonplace.

This is highlighted today by an incredible court case after a milkshake was thrown over Nigel Farage during the General Election (GE) campaign.

In my early years as a trainee reporter from 1983, on what was then the biggest-selling paper produced in Wales, the South Wales Echo (SWE), the abuse or absurd legal threats following (or during the writing of) reports was rare, although they did happen.

Now these awful comments come thick and fastt.

In the old days people used to have to stop and think, put pen to paper, find a stamp, before sending in a letter of complaint to threaten legal action (they often seemed to use green ink!).

Now with Facebook (FB), X (formerly Twitter), email, or in the comments sections of media outlets, this can be done almost instantaneously.

Comments about me have also had to be referred to the police for investigation.

A Marc Winchester said on Twitter/X, in a tweet which has since been deleted:  “I’ll whack him (me)“, and the definition of the verb ‘to whack’ in the Urban Dictionary is:  “to murder someone”.

He had links to the failed company No Debt Ltd and when it was wound up the liquidator said: “At the date of liquidation the Company’s draft accounts for the year ended 30 June 2015 suggested that the former director… of the Company… Mr Winchester (owed) the Company… a collective amount totalling £317,406 … Mr Winchester was declared bankrupt on 23 May 2017”.

This Mr Winchester is a family member, although it appears he is another part of the Winchester ‘club’.

But there is a connection with Mr Winchester, too, through another crashed business which also hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons – Falcon and Pointer Ltd. The BBC reported that the licence to practice was taken away after more than 40 million nuisance calls had been made. The item said:  “Falcon and Pointer Ltd used automatic dialing technology to make the calls about mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI). The Claims Management Regulator (CMR)… (said)… The firm set out to ‘plague the public and rip off consumers’…”

If anything, the torrent of insults is increasing! Attempts have been made (thankfully they were unsuccessful!) to close down my website, The Eye, because people didn’t like what was said there.

My Wikipedia entry has been vandalised several times, and in one instance the words ‘tool’ and ‘knob head’ were inserted. I have also been compared on Twitter/X to the comedy broadcaster Alan Partridge.

The Wikepedia entry has now been restored to its original form, after officials removed the abusive words.

The Alan Partridge comment was by a Sion Tomos Owen whose blog describes him as: “…a bilingual TV and Radio presenter, illustrator, writer and creative workshop tutor…”.

Mr Owen said in Welsh: “There’s no way that this website (The Eye) is for real?! It’s as if a Take a Break (light magazine) story has been edited by Alan Partridge” (laughing emoji).

Another remark which concerned a television ‘reporter’ who had posted pictures of herself on social media in skimpy clothes, is sadly typical of the insults I constantly receive: “Your article on Ellie Pitt was bordering on mysogynistic bullying, a really pathetic article written by a bitter individual who was a complete failiure as a BBC correspondent and also loved bashing the Catholic Church with your disgraceful Panorama programme”.

Indeed accusations of being ‘misogynistic’ or ‘misogynist’, are a constant refrain among those who hurl offensive comments (including from a person who has now been jailed because of his pedophilia), if factual stories are published with the targets happening to be women, yet these are potentially libellous words and the description is also provably wrong.

In the past I have also been accused online (incorrectly) of being a “bastard” (many times), an “anti-devolutionist wanker”, “pure scum”, a “liar” (also many times) a “little git”, and (correctly) a “nosey git”, “irritating”, or a “nuisance”. But these remarks come amid many others. Too many, in fact, to mention.

I rarely sue (although I do sometimes) unless the online message is particularly outrageous, and contains a libel (which most of them do).

Some can be supported in court using an “honest comment” defence (formerly known as “fair comment”), however most cannot, which means that any libel case is likely to be successful.

Perpetrators of this abuse appear to be unaware of the legal ramifications of their statements, and say the most appalling things online (which, of course, have been PUBLISHED to a third party so the RULES APPLY!).

It looks like Ms Bowen didn’t obey the rules either (although being charged with assault when it was only a milkshake seems a bit harsh!), and perhaps she didn’t know the law (unlike me) – like all those people who threaten to sue…

The memories of Phil’s decades long award-winning career in journalism (when abuse was fairly rare at the beginning) as he was gripped by the incurable neurological condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!

Tomorrow – why Phil looks on with horror at how after a string of high-profile scandals in the giant corporation where he worked for many years (The BBC), criticism is now mounting of its cultural output when it apparently includes in the bracket shows like ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and ‘Italian Grand Tour’ where two celebrities go to Venice.