BBC axes shows featuring maker of pug Nazi salute video
U-turn follows outcry over decision to include Mark Meechan on new debate series The Collective
The BBC has scrapped two episodes of a new late-night debate show that feature a man found guilty of a hate offence for teaching his dog to do a Nazi salute.
Controversial YouTube personality Mark Meechan was filmed alongside reality TV star James English and Edinburgh-based dominatrix Megara Furie for The Collective, launching in April on the new BBC Scotland digital channel, The Times reports.
But following an outcry after the line-up was revealed by a Sunday newspaper, BBC Scotland has announced that the episodes featuring Meechan will be edited out of the series.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The 31-year-old blogger was arrested and convicted of being “grossly offensive” in 2018 after he uploaded a video to YouTube showing his girlfriend’s pug dog doing a Sieg Heil salute alongside Nazi imagery.
Meechan, from Coatbridge, in Lanarkshire, also chanted variations of the phrase “gas the Jews”, repeating the slur around 23 times in a few minutes of footage, The Scotsman reports.
This week, Meechan “boasted to his social media followers that he was still refusing to pay the £800 fine handed to him by a judge at Airdrie Sheriff Court”, the newspaper adds.
A statement released by the BBC yesterday said that the broadcaster had decided it was “not appropriate” to include him as a contributor.
Responding on Twitter, Meechan - known online as Count Dankula - said he was not surprised by the decision.
He wrote: “Due to the media getting outraged I got deplatformed and I am being edited out of the show. I fully 100% expected this, even while filming I was thinking ‘No one is gonna let this air’. So it’s not a surprise to me. Can’t have people seeing what I am really like can we?”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Week contest: Swift stimulus
Puzzles and Quizzes
By The Week US Published
-
'It's hard to resist a sweet deal on a good car'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
10 concert tours to see this winter
The Week Recommends Keep warm traveling the United States — and the world — to see these concerts
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Russia's shadow war in Europe
Talking Point Steering clear of open conflict, Moscow is slowly ratcheting up the pressure on Nato rivals to see what it can get away with.
By The Week UK Published
-
Cutting cables: the war being waged under the sea
In the Spotlight Two undersea cables were cut in the Baltic sea, sparking concern for the global network
By The Week UK Published
-
The nuclear threat: is Vladimir Putin bluffing?
Talking Point Kremlin's newest ballistic missile has some worried for Nato nations
By The Week UK Published
-
Russia vows retaliation for Ukrainian missile strikes
Speed Read Ukraine's forces have been using U.S.-supplied, long-range ATCMS missiles to hit Russia
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published