Kirsty Wark hits out at cancel culture and warns of ‘dangerous mob mentality’ growing in society
- Kirsty Wark, 65, says critics should engage with JK Rowling rather than shunning
- The BBC Newsnight presenter warned of ‘incredibly dangerous mob mentality’
- She said people risked being ‘found guilty in the court of public opinion’
Kirsty Wark has hit out at the growing cancel culture that has seen JK Rowling come under fire – warning of an ‘incredibly dangerous mob mentality’.
Activists have called for a boycott of the Harry Potter author over her views on transgender rights.
BBC Newsnight presenter Miss Wark, 65, labelled such actions as wrong and said critics should engage with the writer instead of shunning her completely.
Miss Wark told the Sunday Times Magazine: ‘Obviously there are lots of people who feel very hurt by what JK Rowling wrote.
BBC Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, 65, has warned calls to cancel people like JK Rowling are part of an ‘incredibly dangerous mob mentality’
‘But not publishing her? Locking away? That’s not the way to deal with it. You have to engage. I think there is a real issue about cancelling people.
‘It’s a really, really worrying aspect of our society, because it encourages a kind of mob mentality, which is completely fed by the internet and can become incredibly dangerous.’
She said people risked being ‘found guilty in the court of public opinion’.
Cancelling people for making controversial statements will lead public discourse down a dangerous road, she said.
However, Mrs Wark showed some sympathy for those who don’t have the ‘privilege’ of a large platform in the first place.
Activists have called for a boycott of the Harry Potter author JK Rowling over her views on transgender rights
She said: ‘If you were a young person who’s feeling really insecure, and you had no money to make your voice heard, well, maybe it was about the fact that she has a voice and you feel you don’t have a voice.
‘Maybe you’d feel she had the privilege of a voice. I think some people have more of a voice than others.’
She added: ‘It’s very hard for some people to find a voice. If they don’t have the education and so forth.
‘And if they find themselves without access to the education, and without the wherewithal or friendships or family to help them through things – the feeling that they are in the wrong place in their body and they want to transition – it’s tough for them.
‘I can’t imagine what that would be like.’