Research by Plaid Cymru has shown that the BNP “supporters” quoted on their election address are in fact stock photos from istockphoto.com.
The party believes the BNP's leaflets break electoral guidelines and are therefore illegal and this is why Adam Price, the party's Director of Election has called on the Royal Mail to put an end to the distribution of BNP flyers.
The leaflet is in the process of being delivered to millions of homes in the UK. It includes pictures of a doctor, a group of "British" workers and an elderly couple. All the individuals are quoted as giving their support to the BNP.
However, according to Plaid, the doctor - who claims he will be “voting BNP” - is a model. The elderly couple - quoted as saying they want to see pensioners put before asylum seekers - are the parents of photographer, Luca di Fillippo, and it is alleged the “British” workers actually posed for Boone Rodriguez: a photographer based in Portland, Oregon.So, it appears that none of the photographed individuals are British or supporters of the BNP.
Here's Adam Price:
"On their leaflets they [the BNP] use a series of photos of supposed BNP supporters. However the truth is that the ‘British’ workers in front of the union jack are actually American builders on a site in the USA. The ‘doctor’ who says ‘he’s voting BNP’ is actually a stock photo of an American actor, who probably has never heard of the BNP and I would be very surprised if he was eligible to vote here. The pensioners featured in the leaflet were totally unaware that their photo has been used on this leaflet in such a way.
"It is a sick irony that the people photographed, and indeed the photographers are from other countries - the very people that the BNP seeks to demonize."
Mr Price insists circulation of the leaflet must end:
"These leaflets hideously misrepresent the views of the people photographed. I believe that they have breached the guidelines set out for electoral communications and I call on the Royal Mail to stop their distribution immediately."
We have contacted the BNP for a response to these comments and will post their reaction once we have it! In the meantime, what are your thoughts?
Dewi Dau
p.s. iStock's Content license agreement states that a client may not "use or display any Content that features a model or person in a manner that (i) would lead a reasonable person to think that such person uses or personally endorses any business, product, service, cause, association or other endeavour;"
8 comments:
"Research by Plaid Cymru has shown..."
Really? So Plaid were the ones who discovered that? I think not...
I think anyone who uses the internet and has received the BNP leaflets in recent days (mainly delivered by hand while they have a little stall in some town centre) will have sussed out the photos are not of real voters. I am sure many others (particularly the political active) have researched this too. The first thing that came to mind when I saw a copy was 'stock photos'.
Whether one inventor or another gets to claim credit for a discovery is often down to who gets their patent appplication in first. Plaid are the first to break the news story in Wales so da iawn to them for exposing the BNP here.
"Exposing the BNP"! This is clutching at straws. How can the BNP find any proffessionals to photo.....they'd be sacked! I am not happy with this kind of attack on the BNP. I don't support them. It's easy enough I would have thought to beat them using arguments. I listened to a Radio Programme yesterday with member of the 3 main parties + the greens and UKIP on the forum. I heard accusations regarding the BNP.....but they weren't invited to be able to answer. I couldn't vote the BNP myself....I would be a frightened that it would be the beginning of something rather nasty....but it's the mainstream parties who have left people down so badly that they might now consider turning to the BNP.
Adam Price must be desperate if he needs to call for these leaflets to be banned.
Adam, the vast majority of voters know what the BNP stands for, and will either avoid them because of their unacceptable views or in a minority of cases give them their support.
I hardly think that Adam Price questioning the legality of stock photos in the leaflet is going to be sufficient reason to put off people who intend voting BNP anyway. And it will not be the reason why people don't vote for the party either.
...and further to my post at 18.21.........I find the Labour Party as vile as the BNP. They took us into a war based on lies. In case nobody remembers.....10's of thousands (a very consevative estimate) died. I wonder how many are in Iraq now suffering from the effects of depleted uranium. How many are living with limbs missing. And, having not found the WMD which we were there to save ourselves from.....the Labour shister MPs voted against a public inquiry din't they. They havel blood on their hands.....or was it just a game with Adam Price trying to get Bliar in the dock. Tell me I am confused. I dont' the the BNP have any blood on their hands....at least on the Labour scale.....
Anon- a certain BNP member named David Copeland DOES have blood on his hand. The Soho nail bombing, for example. www.nothingbritish.com
Leaflet or not, I'm still voting BNP.
Whiteman in Africanized South London.
I just hope the BNP paid for the right licence from iStockphoto otherwise they'll be very out of pocket paying the damages.
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