BRIGHTON COUNCILLOR WELCOMES BAN ON 'MURDER MUSIC' SINGER

Brighton & Hove Green City Councillor Simon Williams, who is openly gay, is welcoming the Home Office's decision to ban 'Sizzla Kalonji' [real name Miguel Orlando Collins] - a Jamaican reggae artist who has incited the murder of lesbians and gay men and white people in his music and concerts.
Sizzla was due to tour the UK 3 - 8 November. The promoters of the cancelled tour face losses of around £100,000.

Simon Williams said: "It's good news that the Government is beginning to take the issue of murder music seriously. Artists like Sizzla are a threat to public order. Could you imagine allowing an artist into the country who preached the murder of other minority groups such as ethnic minorities or the disabled? Sizzla has openly incited the murder of gay and white people in his concerts. ( 1)

"With reported homophobic attacks in Brighton and Hove rising steeply (2) - and the murder of a gay man in London's West End at the weekend - the gay community needs to be protected from those in the music industry who produce and promote homophobic murder music. This includes the record chains who refuse to take murder music off sale.

"Stopping murder music artists from performing is just one part of solving the problem: what we really need is new legislation to protect LGBT people from incitement to hatred in the same way that racial minorities are protected by the Race Relations Act. Only the Government can deliver this."

Councillor Simon Williams serves on the City Council's Community Safety Forum and is the Green Party's Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Kemp Town in the general election.