This morning the BBC published a range of malicious and false allegations of criminal activity against me relating to a signature on a form relating to a community organisation. There is no allegation, even by the hit-team within the BBC, of any financial wrongdoing relating to the Charity, rather their story relates solely to a signature. This comes after a night of stabbings and rioting in the New Lodge, yet the BBC’s focus is on a malicious smear campaign against me.
This comes after BBC staff held an internal meeting 3 weeks ago in which journalists were instructed to ‘get’ me and to “find a way” to name me as a UVF member in order to preclude other sections of the BBC from using me as a commentator.
The BBC also produced what they described as a “leading handwriting expert” Elaine Quigley. Her website can be found HERE. The register of expert witnesses is published by Dr Chris Pamplin, it does not appear that Ms Quigley is listed in the 2018/19 edition. It is unclear on what basis the BBC have designated Ms Quigley an ‘expert’ in this field.
On her own website Ms Quigley says “The service is tailored to the specific needs of those coming to her (Elaine Quigley”. This clearly suggests that the BBC, whose journalism is far from objective on this issue, went to Ms Quigley and she tailored her service to their specific needs- namely advancing a smear campaign against me.
There are virtually zero cases anywhere in the United Kingdom when a handwriting report has been conclusive. It is normally on a scale of probability, despite this, Ms Quigely- tailoring her service to the BBC’s specific needs- is 100% certain and is able to state her conclusion as absolute fact. The BBC, it seems, did not then seek a second opinion but rather skipped back to Belfast from their tax-payer funded jolly to London and went to work on building a smear story.
The key person in the whole story is Pastor Mark Gordon, the person whose signature the BBC have stated as fact was forged. The BBC did not attempt to contact Pastor Gordon, and it was only after Pastor Gordon contacted the BBC with a formal statement that they inserted a small sentence into their story.
Pastor Gordon made clear nothing had been done wrong and utterly demolished the BBC’s criminal allegation of ‘forgery’- despite this the BBC continue with this allegation, even when it has been completely rubbished by the alleged ‘victim’.
You can watch a video outlining challenging the BBC’s smear campaign here and read the full statements issued by myself and Pastor Mark Gordon below:
A statement by Jamie Bryson in response to allegations made by a section of BBC NI:
“WWSCI is one of the smallest charities in Northern Ireland that works regularly with all statutory agencies and the PSNI. In comparison to many large community groups within the Republican community receiving millions of pounds, this small charity- of which I am not even a trustee- has an average income over the years of around £14,000 per year.
“These allegations come three weeks after a discussion in an internal BBC meeting with newsroom and investigative staff in the days following Avoniel whereby senior members of staff stated that they wanted all reporters to focus on, and I quote, ‘getting Jamie Bryson somehow’ and also to ‘dig into’ east Belfast loyalists.
“This cabal within the BBC are not reporting the news, but contriving it for political purposes.
“This desperation from this BBC cabal is all about trying to force other sections of the BBC and media, who refuse to blacklist persons for political purposes, to stop using me.
“I highlighted this earlier in the week when I published a highly critical article outlining how a liberal elite cabal within the BBC were waging war on ‘unacceptable’ voices. It’s only a few weeks ago a nationalist commentator was allowed to use BBC output, after jig-saw identifying me as the target of her rant, to call for me to be ‘taken out of circulation’.
“The BBC have poured vast resources, from the public purse, into investigating me and the best they can come up with is some convoluted laughable allegation about a signature on an administrative form.
“Of course the real purpose of this is both to smear me, but also to act as dog whistle to try and set the Charity Commission and PSNI onto me and if you were cynical you may think there is a joined up approach whereby the BBC lay the ground work to provide the PSNI with justification to try and have another go at me after their previous efforts failed to have the desired effect.
“Isn’t it incredible that the BBC, at precisely the time I am subjecting sections of the corporation to robust criticism relating to bias all of a sudden decide they are going to pull out all the stops to find any kind of nonsensical allegation they can make about me.
“Recently we have seen loyalists in south Belfast and unionist victims groups targeted with spurious media allegations about their charities. The BBC, across the UK, appear to be focusing significant resources on targeting Brexiteers with their agenda as transparent as it is malicious.
“Notably when there were serious and ultimately substantiated allegations around the Charity RCCANI and their political links to Sinn Fein, the BBC newsroom did not carry out an investigation, instead they- at the urging of the Sinn Fein press office- sent out a news crew to do a puff piece. This of course ended up looking rather foolish following the later Nolan Show revelations.
“The allegation advanced is however effectively alleging a criminal offence. I am unsure when the BBC took on the role of the PSNI, however it is not the kind of activist journalism I intend to facilitate without challenge.
“The most astonishing part of all of this is that despite Pastor Mark Gordon being the central person in this, the BBC were not even intending on going to Pastor Gordon to ask him whether he had indeed examined the documents. They intended, presumably in an effort to create a ‘no smoke without fire’ narrative, to leave this core question hanging.
“I had to inform Pastor Gordon and then notify the BBC he demanded a right of reply. This should tell you all you need to know about the real purpose of these baseless allegations.
“If there are any allegations whatsoever of any form of offence being committed then the BBC, or those behind them, should refer this matter to the PSNI and at that point I will be extremely happy to voluntarily sit down with the PSNI and answer any legitimate questions they may have arising from this ludicrous BBC inspired allegation.
“It is outrageous for the BBC to believe they can simply make criminal allegations against citizens and if the accused refuses to feed their contrived story them somehow guilt or innocence can’t be inferred from that.
“I made the point over a 30 minute interview that the principle at stake was whether a citizen should have to answer criminal allegations made by publicly funded journalists. I have always taken the view, and indeed have written extensively on this point, that no person should be subjected to such trial by media.
“My approach was vindicated when, at the very end for the interview, which I was told was solely about the scurrilous allegations around a signature, it jumped to ‘are you a member of the UVF’.
“Had I been foolish enough to start engaging with the BBC’s malicious allegations, then- if I had thereafter refused to engage with the final outrageous UVF allegation- would have allowed the BBC cabal to say ‘oh but you answered the other allegations, why not this one’ and somehow create the impression of guilt from that.
“This approach failed miserably for them and I want the BBC to publish the full unedited interview. There are serious questions raised about their agenda as this comes after their internal meeting deciding to target me and especially given they interviewed me on the auspices of a signature and then tried to throw an outrageous curved ball about the UVF.
“If it is in the public interest to use tax payers money to investigate me, then it is in the public interest to publish the full fruits of that investigation and that means they must publish the whole unedited interview.
“They should also outline precisely what their allegation is as during interview the journalist made a number of assertions which he represented as fact. They should also be clear about exactly what offence they say has been committed and put into the public domain their evidence of same.
“The BBC in their bulletins have made the allegation of forgery. The offence of forgery must cause prejudice to another and also would have to be carried out without the purported persons permission. They would need to be very careful about their malicious and unsubstantiated allegations, especially in light of the fact they have not carried comments from Pastor Gordon.
“For the avoidance of all doubt I robustly deny any wrongdoing whatsoever, either criminal or otherwise, and the most appropriate step should always have been for the BBC to go to Pastor Gordon and ask him about this issue rather than jumping straight to their allegations about me.”
A statement by Pastor Mark Gordon in relation to BBC smear campaign
“I can confirm that I independently examined the WWSCI accounts for 2016/17 and 2017/18 and found them to give a true and fair view of all transactions for the said periods.
“All relevant information requested was provided to me without question and any queries answered. I would be happy to undertake this role again.
“It appears to me the BBC seem to assert some form of criminal allegation with indirect inference against myself and/or Mr Bryson.
If this is the case, I would suggest the BBC refer the matter to the PSNI, the appropriate body to investigate any such allegations, rather than the BBC pursuing any criminal investigation for political purposes.
“Despite being at the centre of this so-called ‘story’, it was only at the urging of Mr Bryson that the BBC reluctantly agreed to contact me and afford me a right of response, which implies this is little more than an attempt to smear Jamie Bryson, whom I believe is the target of a BBC witch-hunt because he has been highly critical of sections of the BBC.
“I further note the BBC are using the word ‘forgery’ in their ‘lead story’ against Mr Bryson (a ‘lead story that may have been better focussed on the attacks by Republicans against PSNI officers in New Lodge), however, an offence of forgery requires prejudice caused to another, and also to have been carried out without my express authority and permission.
“The BBC have not spoken to me ‘on the record’ or demonstrated any of these essential elements of an allegation of forgery.
“I can categorically state that I believe Mr Bryson has not done anything wrong and I will be happy to meet with the PSNI and/or Charity Commission to answer any questions they might have.”