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.
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.
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?”
-
Local elections 2026: where are they and who is expected to win?The Explainer Labour is braced for heavy losses and U-turn on postponing some council elections hasn’t helped the party’s prospects
-
6 of the world’s most accessible destinationsThe Week Recommends Experience all of Berlin, Singapore and Sydney
-
How the FCC’s ‘equal time’ rule worksIn the Spotlight The law is at the heart of the Colbert-CBS conflict
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
