Monday 3 November 2008

Charles Moore: "I won't pay licence fee" if Jonathan Ross remains employed by BBC

The Brand-Ross affair dominates the media pages in The Guardian and The Independent today and prompts an article on the BBC by David Cameron in The Sun. But this should not obscure a startling pledge by former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore who, in his column in the paper on Saturday, said he will refuse to pay his TV licence fee if Jonathan Ross is employed by the BBC when it comes up for renewal.
Moore also compared Ross to the torturers of Abu Ghraib. "When the Abu Ghraib atrocities against Iraqi prisoners filled our media, people rightly noted that the torment consisted not in physical pain, but in humiliation. The humiliation was increased by photographing the acts. The torturers thought that what they did was funny. They were arrested, dismissed from the US armed services and imprisoned.
"Jonathan Ross was doing essentially the same thing. He thought it was funny to use his power to torment someone mentally, and to let other people witness the torment."
Moore concluded: "If Ross is still in post when my television licence next comes up for renewal, I shall keep my television, but refuse to pay the fee. Instead, I shall hand over the £139.50 to Help the Aged, and wait for Mark Thompson's detector van to come to my door."
Could be an interesting court case.

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