28 February 2011

Update: John Kelly’s Case

John Kelly, a veteran TV License Refusenik, is challenging BBC bias in the European Court of Human Rights. In his complaint, dispatched to Strasbourg today, Mr. Kelly alleged TV licensing represents discrimination on the grounds of political opinion.

‘Those who agree with the BBC would obviously have no problem financing it,’ the complaint reads. ‘Those who take the opposite view, such as myself and other Eurosceptics, are effectively denied the right to watch television. It would be against my conscience to finance my political opponents who actively promote what I see as an anti-patriotic agenda; and it would be against the law to watch television without doing so.’

It is also alleged that the trial of Mr Kelly, where he was fined for non-payment of licence fee, was unfair. At the trial on 15 July 2009, Exeter Magistrates Court declined to hear Mr. Kelly’s full statement in mitigation and found him guilty.