Police Hand Back Seized BNP Paper

BBC News, Sept. 12

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Tens of thousands of copies of this month’s edition of the British National Party’s newspaper are to be handed back after they were seized by police.

The entire print run of the September issue of The Voice of Freedom was impounded when it arrived at Dover in a lorry from Slovakia.

Kent Police said it would be checking to see if any public order offences had been committed.

A spokesman said sample copies of the paper had been kept for the inquiry.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will decide whether to prosecute over a possible incitement to racial hatred.

Kent Police were alerted by customs officers after the newspapers were found during a random check.

The two Slovak drivers were released after questioning.

The British National Party (BNP) said the papers had been en route from the printworks in Slovakia to a distribution facility in Leeds .

It has now published the paper on its website.

Spokesman Dr Phill Edwards said the seizure of the party newspaper was “a serious attack by the state on freedom of speech”.

He added: “What they are doing is trying to look for something wrong when they don’t know there is anything wrong.

“We are saying it is an abuse of power—we are supposed to be a free country.”

On its website, the party said none of its leadership believed the customs search was random.