One of Britain’s many at-best questionable decisions in its governance of Northern Ireland, according to Savage, the broadcasting ban—which also applied to some pro-British loyalist organizations—failed to ease the conflict and also damaged the United Kingdom’s reputation as a leading global democracy.
“The British government was obsessed with its image worldwide, and the last thing they wanted was to be seen as making a heavy-handed effort to suppress free speech,” he said. “Thatcher herself said that ‘no viable democracy can institute censorship,’ but she bullied the BBC constantly, making threatening public statements and packing the BBC Board of Governors with her allies to influence its operation. When Britain instituted the broadcast ban, countries with authoritarian regimes, like Cuba, remarked on the irony of this beacon of democracy clamping down on…
