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The ‘terror plot’ that didn’t fit

We’re only interested in the sort of terrorism that suits our paranoia, says matthew carr

In the early 1980s, Margaret Thatcher imposed a media ban on Sinn Fein and the IRA on the grounds that terrorists should be deprived the 'oxygen of publicity'.

Governments and terrorist experts have often depicted a symbiotic relationship between terrorists and the media, in which the former supposedly depend on the latter to broadcast 'messages' in the form of bombings, assassinations and atrocities.

But the public perception of terrorism is often shaped by selective media coverage, which concentrates exclusively on a particular version of 'terrorism', while ignoring incidents that fall outside this framework.

A revealing example of this process occurred last week when two men appeared separately in Burnley Magistrates' Court, charged under the 1883 Explosive Substances Act with possession of an explosive substance for an illegal purpose.
One of the accused was a BNP council candidate in last May’s election

One of the accused was a BNP council candidate in last May's local elections in Colne, named Robert Cottage. In a raid on his house, police found what they called "the largest amount of chemical explosives of this type ever found in this country".

The other was a retired dentist named David Jackson, who was allegedly found in possession of a rocket launcher and a nuclear biological protection suit.

Both men were accused by the prosecution of common involvement in "some kind of masterplan". What this masterplan consisted of is not yet known. Nor has the identity of the 22 chemical compounds found by police been revealed.

But what is striking about their court appearance (they were remanded until October 23) is the failure of any mainstream newspaper or media outlet to report it at all.

It is not difficult to imagine what the response might have been had two Muslims been involved. There would have been banner headlines, police statements celebrating the prevention of another apocalyptic plot, suggestions of a wider