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Free Speech 2 - I'm Offended Apr 21, 2016

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Timothy Garton Ash examines how free speech is being eroded in the place it should be most secure: in universities. He examines the activist practise known as 'no platforming'. It means that one group of students is being prevented from hearing someone they do want to hear, because another group of students doesn't want that voice to be heard. Feminists Julie Bindel and Germaine Greer were both 'no platformed' due to their views on transgender people. Professor Garton Ash argues that the practice goes directly against a core principle of free speech, which is that all views - even offensive ones - must be robustly challenged in well-informed debate and not censored by those who cry 'I'm offended'.

Producer: Nina Robinson

Free Speech 3 - Respect Me, Respect My Religion Apr 21, 2016

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Timothy Garton Ash asks if religion is a special case where freedom of speech should be curtailed. He asks how we can reconcile belief in an absolute revealed truth with the post-Enlightenment freedom to question everything, including religious faith. He proposes that the principle we should adopt is to "respect the believer but not necessarily the content of the belief". Will this be enough to bridge the gap? Producer: Nina Robinson

Free Speech 4 - Media We Need Apr 21, 2016

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Timothy Garton Ash asks whether we have the media we need to really exercise our right to freedom of expression? He examines the diversity of voices across the media landscape and wonders whether the ownership structure of Britain's media industry is conducive to free speech. Are we able to understand what is happening in our government so we can exercise clear judgment on public policy? Are we being told the Truth with a capital T? With the advent of the internet, there is a plethora of ways in which we are now communicating, especially using social media networks like Facebook. But is the algorithm used for news feeds showing us only what we want to see, rather than what we need to see? Producer: Nina Robinson

Free Speech 5 - Big Brother is Watching Apr 21, 2016

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It is often said that our right to free speech is balanced by our right to privacy. Timothy Garton Ash asks how we should strike the right balance between the two. In a world where we are sharing more of our lives online than ever before, should we accept that our privacy rights are no longer as important? Producer: Nina Robinson

The Deobandis: Part 2 Apr 14, 2016

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In part two of The Deobandis, the BBC's former Pakistan correspondent Owen Bennett Jones reveals a secret history of Jihadist propagation in Britain.

This follows the BBC's discovery of an archive of Pakistani Jihadist publications, which report in detail the links some British Deobandi scholars have with militant organisations in Pakistan. Among the revelations are details of a lecture tour of Britain by Masood Azhar - a prominent Pakistani militant operating in Kashmir. He toured the UK in the early 1990s, spreading the word of Jihad to recruit fighters, raise funds and build links which would aid young Britons going abroad to fight Jihad decades later.

The programme also explores intra-Muslim sectarianism in Britain, and discovers how some senior Deobandi leaders have links to the proscribed organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba, a militant anti-Shia political party formed in Pakistan in the 1980s.

But how widespread and representative is this sympathy with militancy?

The programme explores the current battle for control in some British mosques, speaking to British Deobandi Muslims pushing back against the infiltration of Pakistani religious politics in British life.

As one campaigner says, this is 'the battle for the soul of Islam' and the 'silent majority' must speak out - but can moderate Muslims build the institutional power they need to really enforce change?

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE:

Aimen Dean - former member of Al Qaeda and former MI5 operative

Rafaello Pantucci - Director in International Security Studies, RUSI

Mufti Mohammed Amin Pandor

Toaha Qureshi MBE - Trustee of Aalimi Majlise Tahaffuze Khatme Nubuwwat (Stockwell, London)

Aamer Anwar - human rights lawyer

Producers: Richard Fenton-Smith & Sajid Iqbal Researcher: Holly Topham

The Deobandis: Part 1 Apr 14, 2016

Show notes

The Deobandis are virtually unknown to most British people, yet their influence is huge. As the largest Islamic group in the UK, they control over 40% of mosques and have a near monopoly on Islamic seminaries, which propagate a back-to-basics, orthodox interpretation of Islam.

Founded in a town called Deoband in 19th Century India, it's a relatively new tradition within the Islamic faith, but has spread throughout the world, with the UK being a key centre. Migrants from India and Pakistan brought Deobandi Islam to the UK during the 1960s and 1970s, setting up mosques and madrassas in the mill towns of Bury and Dewsbury, from which a national network grew.

The Deobandi movement is large and diverse: from the quietest and strictly non-violent missionary group the Tablighi Jamaat to the armed sectarian and jihadist groups of Pakistan.

The BBC's former Pakistan correspondent Owen Bennett Jones investigates which strands of Deobandi opinion have influence in the UK, speaking to people from within the British Deobandi community, from scholars to missionaries to madrassa students.

In the first of two programmes he explores claims that Deobandi Islam is intentionally isolationist and that its strict beliefs put it at odds with mainstream British culture, leaving the community segregated from wider British society. Though if true, is that really the fault of Deobandi Muslims?

Producers: Richard Fenton-Smith & Sajid Iqbal Researcher: Holly Topham

The Philby Tape Apr 04, 2016

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How did notorious traitor Kim Philby manage to infiltrate MI6 and send its most sensitive secrets to the Soviets? Now, for the first time, we can hear his account in a once secret tape the BBC has unearthed. It is a story of documents smuggled, Cold War operations betrayed, and Philby’s ability to evade detection by simply denying everything. BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera reveals the full story.

Corporate Amnesia Mar 21, 2016

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Phil Tinline finds out what happens when institutions lose their memory and how they can best capture and share the lessons of the past.

The End of Free Mar 14, 2016

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Andrew Brown of The Guardian asks if the dramatic rise of ad-blocking software will undermine the commercial model behind most free news on the internet. He finds an industry in deep concern over the "Ad-blockalypse" - with these new programmes meaning that advertisers may refuse to continue to subsidise online news providers if consumers are now no longer seeing their online adverts. Can the industry persuade people to pay for what was previously available at no charge? And if not, can commercial online news services survive? Producer: Katie Inman.

Power to the People? Mar 07, 2016

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Will devolution bring back the power to England's cities and regions that they once had? And, if so, will all local authorities fare equally? Michael Robinson explores the history of local government and asks if old freedoms are now set to return under the new deal promised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

Producer : Rosamund Jones.

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