Channel 4 News 'banned' from covering The Brexit Party events, says broadcaster

Channel 4 says that The Brexit Party has banned the broadcaster from its events. Picture: Channel 4 - Credit: Channel 4

The Brexit Party has banned Channel 4 News from its events for six weeks, according to the broadcaster.

We hope to resolve our access ban from Brexit Party events ASAP. We were unaware of the 6-week ban until last Thursday when we broadcast this Nigel Farage investigation, revealing he had been bankrolled by £450k from Arron Banks. Until then we had full access, including to Farage https://t.co/giVSm2CIxg
— Ben de Pear (@bendepear) May 21, 2019

Channel 4 News’ editor Ben de Pear said in a tweet that they hoped to resolve the ban as soon as possible.

He said they had had full access, including to Nigel Farage himself, prior to the broadcasting of a Channel 4 investigation into Farage’s funding.

The investigation revealed that Farage is being bankrolled with £450,000 of Arron Banks’ money.

Labour MP Kate Hoey agreed with a ban, tweeting that it sounded like a “sensible decision” because Channel 4 “never ever has said anything positive about leaving the EU”.

The other broadcasters should show solidarity and decline to cover until Channel 4 is reinstated - this is just Trump bullshit and should be resisted https://t.co/mllPvTRheD
— Marina Hyde (@MarinaHyde) May 21, 2019

Columnist Marina Hyde called for other broadcasters to decline any coverage of The Brexit Party until Channel 4’s access is assured. “This is just Trump bullshit and should be resisted,” she said.

Twitter user James Melville has had 18,000 retweets to his comment saying: “Please retweet if you think that other broadcasters should now boycott events hosted by The Brexit Party in solidarity with @Channel4News.”

It is not the only instance of media being banned from party political events.

In 2014, security staff at a UKIP conference event tried to eject journalists fronm a fringe event about Sharia Law, according to the Telegraph.

As @Channel4News Never  Ever has said anything positive about Leaving the EU this sounds a sensible decision https://t.co/BsbbPX6v3i
— Kate Hoey (@KateHoeyMP) May 20, 2019

UKIP later apologised, said the Telegraph, saying it was a mix-up.

The New European has contacted The Brexit Party for comment.