Journalist targeted by hate site calls for action

Yorkshire Evening Post journalist and anti-racism campaigner Pete Lazenby has said newspaper publishers have a "moral obligation" to help bring down the far right website Redwatch believed to be responsible for a number of attacks across the country.

The site lists photographs and contact details of anti-fascist protesters including Lazenby whose face appears on the home page behind a gunman's target along with the slogan: "Remember places, traitors' faces, they'll all pay for their crimes".

A delegation of MPs and union activists met with government ministers yesterday to discuss possibly banning the site – which has been accused of inciting violence. It has been running for at least two years.

Lazenby, who says he was "verbally attacked" by a known neo-Nazi following his appearance on Redwatch, believes that journalists are "prime targets" on the site which identifies four other journalists from the YEP alone.

He said: "As an NUJ member and lay officer of the union I am appealing to newspaper publishers to add their voices to the campaign to have this site shut down. It's their staff that are being threatened and their weight and prestige would add enormously to the campaign in their staff's interest and as a moral obligation."

Most recently anti-fascist campaigner and president of Merseyside TUC Alec McFadden was slashed across the face with a knife at his home in font of his daughter after appearing on Redwatch.

Two years ago a hit list of targets on a secure email network linked to RedWatch was passed on to the government but ministers said it was difficult to take action as the site was hosted in the United States.