Banned US DJ to sue Smith for defamation
By Alice Cannet
A US radio talk show host has threatened to sue Jacqui Smith for defamation after he was barred from entering the UK alongside Muslim extremists, a Ku Klux Klan member and a neo- Nazi.
It also emerged today that many of the people on the list had not even sought to enter Britain in the first place.
Two of the 16 people on the list are in a Russian jail serving 20-year sentences.
A spokesman said that Jacqui Smith placed people on the list after receiving submissions from officials.
Michael Savage, the “shock jock” DJ said: “For this lunatic Jacqui Smith, the home secretary of England, to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses, is defamation.”
“I want to sue the British home secretary for defamation for linking me up with murderers because of my opinions, my writings, my speaking – none of which have advocated any violence, ever,” he said.
Jacqui Smith told BBC Breakfast that Mr Savage was capable of fomenting hatred and that his extreme views and the way he expressed them was “actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country”.
Mr Savage whose real name is Michael Weiner added: “I’ve been on the air 15 years. My views may be inflammatory, but they’re not violent in any way. “
He was outraged to be on the list and even argued that it might put his life at risk: “She has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people. Does she not think people might hunt me down?”
On Tuesday, the home secretary announced that the government could ban European nationals if they are thought to represent a threat to public security following last year’s introduction of new measures against such individuals.
The list published by the home secretary yesterday also included former Ku Klux Klan member Stephen Donald Black, who set up white supremacy website Stormfront, Hamas leader Yunis Al-Astal, and Eric Gliebe, a neo- nazi former boxer who fought as the “Aryan Barbarian”.
From October last year to March 2009, 22 individuals were barred from coming to the UK by the home secretary and 16 were named yesterday.
Jacqui Smith said yesterday: “The government opposes extremism in all its forms and I am determined to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country.”
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