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Advertising Giant Leads £60M War on Far-Right Lies

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Advertising Giant Leads £60M War on Far-Right Lies the times | Monday February 6 2017 1GM 7 News Advertising giant THE BRITISH LIBRARY/HARRY POTTER leads £60m war on far-right lies Dominic Kennedy help groups combating extremism in Investigations Editor local communities. MC Saatchi achieved prominence Racist myths perpetrated by the far with the poster campaign that brought right are to be challenged online by Margaret Thatcher to power. The Theresa May’s government as part of a advertising giant has developed a repu- £60 million battle against extremism to tation for challenging extremism by Wizarding world A 13th-century phoenix and a 15th-century dragon from the British Library feature in its History of Magic be launched by the advertising giant providing alternative narratives, some- exhibition later this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone MC Saatchi. times through “psy-ops”, the military Anti-hate speech experts say that the psychological operations that influence Home Office will bring the battle opinion. In Somalia, Saatchi has been against propaganda directly to the deterring jihadismviaaradiocampaign. ground occupied by the “alt-right” During the 2010 British general movement by using social media. election, a branch of MC Saatchi The menace to Britain from conti- undermined the British National Party nental Europe’s growing far-right (BNP) by producing images using swas- movement is being monitored by a tikas to remind voters that the rebrand- secretive anti-subversion section of ed organisation had hardline roots. Whitehall, The Times can disclose. In another strand of the May Mosques needing protection from government’s strategy, ties between far-right extremists are likely to be key British radicals and vigilantes hunting beneficiaries from a £2million security asylum seekers on the borders of east- programme for places of worship. ern Europe are being studied. The extent of the May government’s A “strategic assessment of the crackdown on right-wing extremism European far right and the UK” has was disclosed by Whitehall sources in been prepared, according to internal response to documents uncovered by messages marked “sensitive” released Freedom of Information Act requests. to The Times. It has been set up by the The field has become more sensitive Extremism Analysis Unit, created in since Steve Bannon, seen by his critics Mrs May’s time as home secretary. as a neo-fascist, was plucked from the The Whitehall body contacted the extremist fringes running the right- British embassy in Sofia, alerted by wing Breitbart News service to become reports showing that there had been President Trump’s chief strategist. visits to provide “supplies” to militia- In Britain, campaigns will be style border patrols in the Balkans. launched by the Home Office to The Times has previously reported address the threats of “far-right and that Jim Dowson of the self-styled extreme right-wing narratives”, Knights Templar International (KTI), Whitehall sources told The Times. and Nick Griffin, former leader of the Sources in anti-hate speech circles BNP, had been photographed with a said that they had been made aware delivery of ballistic vests, drones and that Saatchi was being brought in to night-vision goggles to hooded vigilan- challenge right-wing propaganda. tes in a Bulgarian forest. KTI has said “They are going against people who that these gifts amounted to protective read Breitbart and stuff like that, the clothing and defensive safety supplies conspiratorial media. They want and not “items of any offensive or people to be critical about what they dangerous nature”. read,” an insider said. “If you have The Home Office said last night: issues, it’s not other communities who “This government is determined to may be the cause of your issues.” challenge extremism in all its forms in- Saatchi won a Home Office contract cluding the evil of far-right extremism last year to produce up to ten cam- and the terrible damage it can cause to paigns a year to undermine extremism. individuals, families and communities.” Saatchi is also lending its expertise to [email protected] Russia’s role in fostering extremism under scrutiny Dominic Kennedy State Duma deputy who heads the right-wing Rodina party. The role of President Putin’s Russia in “Discussion topics included anti-EU, encouraging the far right in Britain has anti-USandanti-LGBTsentiment,” the been monitored by the Foreign Office. report said. “At the end of the event, Diplomatic messages about a gather- Rodina representatives proposed a ing in St Petersburg of extremists from resolution to create a permanent across Europe have been disclosed to committee to facilitate coordination The Times. Representatives of far-right betweenRussianandEuropeanparties. groups, including two Britons, joined Participants rushed to sign it before the forces for a “conservative congress”. event was disrupted by a bomb threat.” A Foreign Office report, released to Mr Griffin told the event: “I see this The Times under the Freedom of Infor- forum as a way of pushing the fight back mation Act, shows that Nick Griffin against liberalism and what we call and Jim Dowson “formed the UK dele- modernism, the destruction of tradi- gation. The French National Front was tional values, including Christianity, absent, reportedly because they felt throughout the modern world.” attendance could jeopardise results at Critics of Russia have been alarmed the forthcoming French municipal by support given to the far right under elections.” Mr Griffin, a former MEP, President Putin. Marine Le Pen’s was leader of the British National Party. National Front was lent €9million by a Mr Dowson has worked for the BNP Russian bank in 2014. The Wilfried and the far-right Britain First party. Martens Centre for European Studies Radical right-wing nationalist and found that European “far-right leaders neo-Nazi movements from nine EU pay regular visits to Russia, have meet- countries, including the Greece-based ings with Russian officials and often Golden Dawn, were joined by a Russian appear on state-owned Russian media”..
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