Open Letter to The Sun and Media Outlets Fueling Hate
To the Editors of The Sun and Others Who Trade in Outrage,
Your recent article—“Travellers bulldoze Green Belt when residents sleep”—wasn’t journalism. It was rage bait, calculated to provoke fear and hate, not inform the public.
And it worked.
The story was swamped with toxic comments. One of the most chilling came from a former Parachute Regiment officer, who said that “burning them out” felt like the logical response. Logical? Burning families out of their homes because of rumours—about falling house prices, crime that hadn’t happened, and the mere presence of Traveller people?
This isn’t a fringe view. It’s the natural end of the dehumanisation you encourage—headline by headline, stereotype by stereotype.
What actually happened? A legal planning process.
Let’s set the record straight. The families in question used a system thousands of people use each year in the UK: retrospective planning permission.
Retrospective planning permission is:
- Completely legal
- Routinely used by homeowners, developers, businesses—and yes, Travellers
- Common in cases where urgency, miscommunication, or misunderstanding occurs
In 2022, over 20,000 retrospective planning applications were submitted in England. You do not run front-page stories about garden offices or driveways added before permission was granted. So why is it national scandal when it’s Travellers?
Because this isn’t about planning. It’s about prejudice.
And your article gave people permission to hate
The reaction wasn’t just disapproval. It was open talk of violence. That same Parachute Regiment officer went unchallenged as he fantasised about arson. And comment after comment echoed it:
“Burn it down.”
“Vermin.”
“No sympathy—kick them off.”
When this language targets any other ethnic minority, it rightly triggers outrage. When it targets Travellers, it becomes entertainment. Your reporting didn’t just allow it—it encouraged it.
This is bigger than one article
The University of Birmingham found that 44.6% of the British public hold negative views of Gypsies and Travellers—more than any other group surveyed, including Muslims. The media plays a massive role in shaping that bias.
Hate speech doesn’t always wear a swastika. Sometimes, it looks like a front page.
When articles like yours are published, hate crimes against Travellers spike. This is a documented trend, and it’s one your editors are no doubt aware of.
I This must stop—now.
We are asking you, clearly and directly:
- Stop rage-baiting the public with Traveller stories.
- Publicly denounce the hate speech your articles inspire.
- Explain the planning process in full—not just when it’s convenient to villainise.
- Amplify Traveller voices and seek fair, fact-based reporting.
Because when the public starts seeing arson as a legitimate response to planning concerns—you’ve stopped being journalists. You’ve become provocateurs.
We believe this is incitement to racial hatred
Let’s be clear: this isn’t “freedom of the press.” When your reporting consistently results in calls for violence, you’re not just printing opinions—you’re stoking hatred.
This is how racism functions in plain sight. And when it targets Gypsies and Travellers, it is still racism.
You can do better. You must do better.
Hire real journalists. Print real stories. Apply the same standards to Travellers that you apply to everyone else. The press should be a safeguard for society—not a weapon against its most marginalised.
Stop feeding the sharks. Start telling the truth.
We’re not invaders. We’re not criminals. We’re not fodder.
We are people, and we deserve the same dignity you would give anyone else.
Signed,
A Collective Voice for Traveller Rights and Ethical Journalism
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