You may recall, back in August 2022, the Countryside Alliance launched its latest vindictive attack on Chris Packham and set up yet another petition calling for him to be gagged or sacked by the BBC; the latest move in a long-running and obsessive hate campaign against Chris by this bloodsport’s lobby group.
The latest attack was in response to Chris using his personal Twitter account to express his personal views (yes, shocker!) applauding the hunt saboteurs whose peaceful protest had stopped a grouse shoot in the Peak District attended by Ian Botham. The Countryside Alliance claimed Chris’s tweet breached the BBC’s guidelines on impartiality.
Bizarrely, the Countryside Alliance’s message of hate was promoted by two articles penned by The Telegraph‘s Environment Correspondent, who you might have thought had more pressing issues to focus on, like the climate and biodiversity crisis.
In September, the BBC responded to the Countryside Alliance’s complaint with this wonderfully chiding statement from a spokesperson:
“As we have said before, impartiality at the BBC is sacrosanct and we have established strong and clear guidelines for social media use.
And as a piece of context, Chris is not exclusive to the BBC, isn’t a factual journalist and isn’t speaking as a BBC presenter.”
Last Friday, no doubt emboldened by the news that a tweet by Gary Lineker had breached the BBC’s impartiality guidelines, the Countryside Alliance published an article on its website bragging that ‘over 6,400 people‘ had supported its petition against Chris and vowed ‘to continue to lobby the BBC‘.
What the Countryside Alliance article didn’t mention was the counter-petition set up in support of Chris. As of today, it has been signed by over 11,000 people who say that ‘Chris Packham shouldn’t be silenced by hunters‘.
Lovely.
That petition is still live so if you want to show your support for Chris, you can sign it here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
The CA are a sad organisation who only represent the tiny fraction of people who get their cheap thrills from cruelty. Chris Packham is an expert in his fields, a tireless campaigner and all round decent fella. He has the support of the vast majority of rural people including myself and my family. Keep up the good work.
Mark Cottam
North Wales
I despise the Countryside Alliance. Their claims to represent country folk are even less credible than the NFU’s claim to represent the majority of British farmers. They represent a tiny minority: the worst of those of us who live and work in the countryside.
The people they represent are best described by the name under which they were known until their innate dishonesty got the better of them: the Field Sports Society. They are the hunters, shooters and associated killers of our wildlife, and their apologists.
The CA and its associates have also aggressively supressed the moderate voices in shooting who have warned of the consequences of their extremist approach. Ca and its supporters ignore the reality that the wind always changes and is almost certainly about to – and their uncompromising opposition to anyone who disagrees with them could soon make action on the many concerns over extreme field sports something politicians have to act on – as happened with fox hunting.
The reason this petition hasn’t sky rocketted is because the allegations are so spurious and ridiculous. And of course the BBC statement.
If there was any risk at all to Chris’s status at the BBC or his reputation this petition would have passed 100,000 some time ago.
That said I did sign and I urge everyone to do so.
I have total trust in Chris’s integrity. There are very few people that I can say that about.
Everything Chris Packham does to defend nature and the environment has my unconditional support. Yet another threat to undermine the integrity of one of our leading and most fearless environmental campaigners. Keep going Chris!
I have lived in the countryside all my life and I fully support you. Grouch moors ate daily desolate place devoid of much biodiversity. The countryside alliance is s misnomer.