SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 30/01/04

The Scottish Socialist Party group in the Scottish Parliament today issued a statement giving “complete and unequivocal support” to BBC staff and journalists who had taken action in protest at government attacks on the organisation and laid a motion in the Scottish Parliament attacking the Hutton Report as a cover-up conducted by a handpicked member of the establishment with a track record of covering up the activities of the secret state.
The SSP group also attacked Tony Blair for staging a ‘coup’ at the BBC in order to put his own loyalists into position.
Tommy Sheridan said;
“The Hutton report was a classic whitewash by an establishment judge who learned his whitewash techniques over Bloody Sunday in Derry and as a Diplock judge in Northern Ireland.
“I commend the BBC staff who demonstrated yesterday and the Scottish Socialist Party will be supporting them against the coup that New Labour has staged in the BBC.”

Scottish Socialist Party MSP for Central Region, Carolyn Leckie, has lodged a motion on behalf of the SSP group in the parliament attacking the Hutton report as a “cover-up” conducted by a hand picked member of the British legal establishment who had previously attempted to cover-up the role of British paratroopers during the now discredited Widgery Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday massacre of unarmed civilians.
The Socialists view the attacks on the BBC in the Hutton Report as an attempt to create a climate of fear and intimidation within the organisation and further evidence of moves towards the suppression of free and open reporting within the UK.
Their motion congratulates all members of BBC staff in Scotland and the rest of the UK for taking action in defence of journalistic integrity within the organisation
The SSP motion calls on Tony Blair to resign for leading the country into war on the basis of a “tissue of lies”.
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