Relatively Speaking

I have a confession to make: Only once in my life have I taken part in a demo. I mean, actually marched in the streets to protest against something. This unique event took place in December 1976, when a few dozen of us demonstrated in London to show our disgust at the fact that 149 Soviet citizens were being held in prisons, labor camps, or psychiatric wards, in defiance of the Soviet Union’s own constitution and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for wishing to practice their religion.

The fact that this demonstration took place, however, is not the point of the story. The point is that it went completely unreported in the British press, radio, and television; whereas an anti-American demo, no larger and held at almost the same time, was widely and gleefully covered.

BC

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Brian Crozier

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I have a confession to make: Only once in my life have I taken part in a demo. I mean, actually marched in the streets to protest against something. This unique event took place in December 1976, when a few dozen of us demonstrated in London to show our disgust at the fact that 149 Soviet citizens were being held in prisons, labor camps, or psychiatric wards, in defiance of the Soviet Union’s own constitution and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for wishing to practice their religion.

The fact that this demonstration took place, however, is not the point of the story. The point is that it went completely unreported in the British press, radio, and television; whereas an anti-American demo, no larger and held at almost the same time, was widely and gleefully covered.