Linton Backlash

Black Echoes, 14 April, 1979 reports on the BBC’s decision to postpone the Omnibus screening of LKJ’s film Dread, Beat an’ Blood.

Linton Backlash

Following the BBC’s decision to postpone the Omnibus screening of ‘Dread, Beat an’ Blood’, the following press statement was issued last Friday by the Race Today Collective, the Bradford Black Collective and the George Lindo Action Committee:
The Race Today Collective, the Bradford Black Collective and the George Lindo Action Committee record, in a letter to the Director General of the BBC (copies to Merlyn Rees and William Whitelaw), strongly protest at the postponement of the screening iof the film Dread Beat an’ Blood on the Omnibus programme from Thursday, April 5 to June 7.
The film is about the life and development of black artist Linton Kwesi Johnson and the impact of white British society on his life and the lives of his people.
The garbled statement from the BBC official published in the Guardian of April 3 is but a cover-up for the real reason why the film is not being screened on the original date which falls during the election period.
The film has been postponed only because it contains statements which are critical of the Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher.
Filming took place during the period when repercussions from Margaret Thatcher’s comments about blacks swamping the country were being felt throughout the black community in Britain. References to Thatcher were, therefore, both unavoidable and politically necessary.
The Race Today Collective, the Bradford Black Collective and the George Lindo Action Committee accuse the BBC of, at best, being journalistic cowards, at worst, political censors.
The BBC is urged by the signatories of the enclosed letter to screen the film during the election campaign.
For further details contact: Race Today (737 2268).