mediawatchwatch.org.uk

Via bloggerheads: Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornesy and Wood Green has joined the campaign to get Woolies and Sainsbury to reconsider their JS: TO ban.

From her blog:

I know that toleration of other people’s religious views is important, but bowing to such a small number of people on what is after all a freedom of speech issue (the DVD is legal, it has a proper classification etc.) is really poor. I’m sure that the vast majority of Christians – as well as people of no religion or other religions – know that freedom of speech is something to be cherished and involves letting other people say or do things that you might not agree with or like.

Good tips include writing to your local MP, and the chief execs of the stores:
– Justin King, Sainsbury’s, 35 Holborn, London, EC1N 2HT
– Trevor Bish-Jones, Woolworths PLC, Woolworths House, 242-246 Marylebone Road, NW1 6JL.

Bravo Lynne!

A short piece in The Scotsman today reports that JS: TO author Stewart Lee cut short a press conference at Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre because of heckling from invited members of Christian Voice. JS: TO is playing at the theatre for one week next March.

Christ, the little buggers are all over the place!

UPDATE: The Press and Journal has more. Including some choice quotes in which CV members put their intellectual cards on the table:

I have read part of this and it’s dreadful. It’s absolutely vile and is an insult.

This poor man who wrote this play is obviously hurt in some way and he hates Christians and Christ.

God help him when he meets his maker.

The script is filth and shouldn’t be shown in Aberdeen. It should be sent back to hell where it belongs.

(Thanks to Garry at BSSC)

Jerry Springer: The Opera is scheduled to play the Liverpool Empire in June next year. According to icLiverpool, a group of Christians led by Alan Chester of Christian Voice say they will hold demonstrations against the musical in a bid to stop anyone watching it.

Here Alan sets out his reasons for banning the show:

It did have a physical effect on me and I had to watch it in parts because to see it the whole way through would have made me sick. We pray to God in the name of Jesus and ask for blessings for our city, but why should He when this is allowed and He is held up to foul, mocking ridicule in the name of so-called entertainment.

It’s not just the protestant fundamentalists that are up in arms. Catholic campaigner Kay Kelly is also quoted:

I think it’s disgusting. I believe the play makes light of Our Blessed Lady and I will be there demonstrating if it is shown

Fortunately, the Empire shows no signs of backing down. A spokeswoman said they remain committed to the performance.

They also have the support of some saner Christians. Martin Newman from Churches Together had these words to say:

If there are Christians who don’t want to be exposed to strong language or such mockery I would advise them not to go to watch the performance. I do not intend to go, but I wouldn’t join a protest against it.

The Christian faith is robust enough to deal with this kind of performance.

Ticket sales have reportedly got off to a strong start, no doubt boosted by all the extra publicity Christian Voice is providing free of charge.

The story also confirms that Stephen Green is claiming credit for the Sainsbury DVD withdrawal. (We asked him ourselves, but he’s going through another one of his sulky not-talking-to-MWW phases).

(Thanks to Peter, on the NSS Newsline)

The Independent reports that a “tiny fringe Christian group” has persuaded Woolworths and Sainsbury to remove the DVD of Jerry Springer: the Opera from their shelves.

It seems likely that it was the Christian jihad group Christian Voice, led by the charity-blackmailing Stephen “Tiny Fringe” Green, who did the persuading.

Sainsbury admitted that it had received only ten complaints. The links to the stores above lead directly to their customer feedback pages.

UPDATE: Woolworths have been sending out identical responses to anti-censorship complaints:

Woolworths is not a censor and does not wish to act as one. Like any other retailer, it is guided by government legislation with regard to film certification.

However, we also listen to our customers and their feedback. On this occasion we have received numerous complaints and it is clear to us that our customers would prefer us not to stock this product.

As a result it has been removed from sale.

UPDATE: Manic at bloggerheads has taken up the baton on the Sainsbury/Woolies boycott, and suggest a possible way forward for both stores.

UPDATE: Sainsbury have sent out a stock response to everyone:

Thank you for contacting us. I am concerned to hear you are unhappy with our decision to no longer sell Jerry Springer, the Opera DVD’s in our stores. I can understand how disappointed you must feel and I hope you will accept my sincere apologies.

Our entertainment range is particularly important at Christmas and we take many factors into consideration when deciding which titles to stock. Ultimately, the most important factor is what our customers want. In response to some to some of the feedback we have received, we have decided not to sell the Jerry Springer DVD’s this Christmas.

I have passed your comments onto our marketing department. I would like to assure you they have taken your comments seriously and will bear them in mind for the future.

Once again thank you for contacting us. I hope that despite your disappointment you will continue to shop at Sainsbury’s in the future. May I take this opportunity to wish you merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

This would suggest that their ban covers only the Christmas period. We’ll see.

UPDATE: (9/10) Sainsbury’s latest response suggests that the JS:TO DVD wasn’t selling well, and was about to be withdrawn from the shelves anyway:

Thank you for contacting us. I am sorry you have been disappointed by our decision to withdraw Jerry Springer – The Opera from sale in our stores. As there has been lots of interest in this matter I would like to clarify why the title was taken out of our range.

We sell many DVD titles throughout the year and our range changes from week to week based on what customers want and, of course, sales. In the first week that Jerry Springer – The Opera was released, we sold only 111 copies in all stores nationwide and received a high number of contacts from unhappy customers. In the early part of the second week we sold only 21 more copies and received further complaints. Due to these very poor sales figures this DVD would have been withdrawn at the end of the week, but in view of the contacts we had received we removed it a few days earlier than planned.

Please be assured that, as a company, we feel it is our responsibility to offer choice. We do not feel it is right for us to tell our customers what they should or should not buy. However, in this case sales were so low that we did not think removing this title would have a negative impact on our customers and we wanted to give them a choice of more popular titles.

Thank you for taking the time to let us know your views on this matter and for giving us a chance to explain the reasons behind our decision.
Kind regards, Gavin Wood

Denmark.dk reports on a disturbing development in the Mohammed cartoon story. A Pakistani religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has offered DKK 50,000 (EUR 7000) to anyone who kills the cartoonist responsible (they think all 12 cartoons were done by the same artist). The party has also called for Danish representatives to be expelled from Pakistan.

The Danish ambassador to Pakistan, Bent Wigotski, has no plans to leave. However, he says:

But the situation is of course serious. They might want to get to the Danish illustrators, but if they can’t reach them, they could make do with a scapegoat.

Danish tourists in Pakistan have been advised to be “extra vigilant”.

The Pakistani ambassador to Denmark, Javed Quresh – one of the eleven Muslim ambassadors who had orginally complained about the cartoons to the Danish government – has distanced himself from the threats.

No Pakistani government would ever support such a thing, I’m sure that the current government will take action in the case. I can’t imagine that a bounty like that doesn’t violate Pakistani legislation.

(Via jihadwatch)

UPDATE: The Gulf Times reports that the Jamaat-e-Islami party has distanced itself from the bounty offer, which was made by a leader of its youth division at a rally in Islamabad. The same newspaper seems to think that the 12 drawings were the work of only two cartoonists.