On Friday I wrote about how wildlife TV presenter and conservationist Chris Packham CBE is taking legal action against Fieldsports Channel Ltd (FCL) and one of their journalists after they published what Chris’s lawyers describe as ‘defamatory and unfounded’ material about him last year (see here).
A letter of claim from Chris’s legal team was sent to Fieldsports Channel Ltd on 20th January 2023 – this isn’t privileged information- it’s known because FCL decided to publish the legal correspondence online for anyone to read.
A few weeks after legal proceedings began, FCL attended the Great British Shooting Show at the NEC in Birmingham on 17-19 February 2023. This show has been described as ‘The UK’s largest shooting show‘ and it’s where thousands of visitors can see ‘a vast range of shotguns, rifles, pistols, air rifles, optics, including specialised night vision & thermal imaging devices…‘ etc. FCL, along with many other traders, had a stand.
Here is a photo of how Fieldsports Channel Ltd chose to decorate their stand at this national gun show. It’s a mocked up ‘trophy room’ where various distorted images of Chris’s head were displayed as trophy mounts, presumably to resemble souvenirs of a kill:
If this isn’t tantamount to inciting hatred, I don’t know what is. I can’t envisage how any reasonable person would see it as anything else.
Not only did FCL have a mocked up ‘trophy room’ on their stand, they also had a large arrow sign suspended from the ceiling encouraging their visitors to ‘Poke Packham Here‘. Poke him with what? The barrel of a shotgun??
I imagine that most attendees at a national gun show are law-abiding people with a professional or personal interest in firearms and shotguns. But it only takes one person suffering from mental health issues with legitimate (certified) access to firearms/shotguns to wreak havoc, often with tragic consequences. We’ve seen dreadful evidence of this recently after gun rampages in Plymouth, Epsom, and on the Isle of Skye, committed by individuals who the police considered fit to hold firearms / shotgun certificates.
But anyone already predisposed to hating Chris and wanting to cause him harm (and let’s face it, there is plenty of evidence that these people do exist within the fieldsports community), might well be emboldened by this ‘trophy wall’ and the sign encouraging aggression towards Chris, and decide to do the unthinkable. Those in the fieldsports community have legitimate and easy access to guns.
For Christ’s sake, he’s already received death threats, of which FCL is well aware given they’re being sued in relation to their publication about one of them. He also suffered a terrifying arson attack at his home in October 2021.
How bloody irresponsible are these people, and that goes for the show organisers, too, who presumably permitted this disgraceful display?
The threat of violence to Chris is very, very real. Charlie Jacoby of Fieldsports Channel Ltd knows this, as it was the reason why Chris (and Mark Avery) were ‘uninvited’ from speaking with Jacoby at the Game Fair in 2019:
Yesterday evening Chris published a video on Twitter about online abuse. In the video, Chris says this:
“The level of perceived threat to myself and my family is now palpable. I sometimes leave or return to my home, wondering if someone will be there waiting. Someone so excited by these accusations that they feel motivated to extreme violence. That’s where I’m at”.
Chris’s address was posted online at the weekend (now removed) by a contributor to the Fieldsports Channel Ltd Facebook page.
Here is the video in full:
I’ve set up a crowd funder to help Chris defend his reputation and clear his name against the ‘defamatory and unfounded’ allegations made by Fieldsports Channel Ltd, and others. The response has been incredible, with hundreds of decent people standing in solidarity with him. If you’d like to contribute, please click here.
As I said on Friday’s blog, making defamatory or even derogatory remarks about the defendants in these libel actions is unhelpful and actually counter-productive as they could undermine Chris’s cases. Comments on this blog will be closely moderated (more so than usual!). Far better to show your support for Chris by participating with the crowd funder.
Thank you.
Raptor Persecution UK 