- RICHARD TAYLOR TELLS JOURNALIST HE WILL MAKE SURE HIS CAREER GOES NOWHERE AFTER VOICE.WALES REFUSES TO TAKE DOWN CRITICAL ARTICLE.
- BUT A SOURCE FROM THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE TELLS VOICE: “TO THREATEN [A JOURNALIST] ALL BECAUSE HE’S LOSING IS JUST CHILDISH.”
- NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS RESPONDS: “IT IS UNACCEPTABLE THAT JOURNALISTS ARE THREATENED FOR SIMPLY DOING THEIR JOB.”
By voice.wales editorial team
Failed Brexit Party candidate Richard Taylor, the newest recruit to the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, has threatened to end the career of voice.wales journalist Mark Redfern after his expose detailing claims of exploitation of vulnerable people at a church rehab programme.
The article, published in December last year, reported from witnesses who claimed Richard Taylor had abused his position as leader of a programme aimed at rehabilitating drug users.
Taylor didn’t respond to a right of reply prior to publication, but several months later – as he announced he was joining the Abolish the Welsh Assembly party – has demanded the article be taken down, saying the claims are false.
When voice.wales offered to include a statement in the article from Taylor, but didn’t agree to taking it down or amending the article, Taylor threatened to end the career of the journalist in question and the sources named in the original article.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure your career goes nowhere because I will plaster you all over social media on this,” Taylor told Mark Redfern.
He continued: “It’s not just me. I know people as well within the media, right. I know certain people on mainstream media, not freelance journalists, and I’m going to go to them and speak to them as well… I’m coming all-guns blazing.”
“I’ll make these people, every single one of them, look like a bunch of idiots and in the long term you will too mate.”
Taylor has also attacked the character of our named sources, but Mark Redfern has obtained character references for them and whilst contacting them subsequently, has not only been able to further substantiate the original claims, but also found further evidence of Taylor’s actions during this period which are being investigated further.
Lee Davies was one of the sources named in the original article and spoke to voice.wales about Taylor’s recent actions.
“The fact is the truth has come out,” Lee said to voice.wales after we told him about the allegations. “To accuse me of being a junkie, a criminal, is a joke… He’s got the gall to turn around and say how can you trust an ex-drug addict but truth be said he was one himself. How can he say that?…It’s hypocritical.”
Lee continued: “To threaten [a journalist] all because he’s losing is just childish.”
The National Union of Journalists, of which Mark Redfern is a member, said: “Journalists are the eyes and ears of the public and it is their role to report on matters of public interest.”
“Members of the NUJ abide by the NUJ’s Code of Conduct which stresses the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed. It is unacceptable that journalists are threatened for simply doing their job.”
Silencing journalists is a tactic used by the far right and fascists across the globe, and Taylor has demonstrated he has no qualms with threatening those who assemble investigations against him.
Taylor’s first punt at election success was with the Brexit Party, an organisation which had become a magnet for fascist sympathisers.
Journalists have been a favourite target of far-right figures internationally such as Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Viktor Orban and have been repeatedly threatened for doing their job.
That this tactic is now entering Welsh politics should be a real concern.
