St. Pancras Station piano dispute / The Pianogate by Brendan Kavanagh and the Chinese CCP Spies Christine Lee, Newton Leng and Liu Mengying
On 19 January 2024, Dr K uploaded to his YouTube channel a copy of his live stream, which was filmed at an upright piano donated by Elton John on the concourse at St Pancras railway station. Since then it has achieved over 10 million views. The upload shows Dr K playing the piano, followed by a contentious interaction with a Chinese group (which included Christine Lee),[16] some wearing colourful costumes and holding small Chinese flags.[17] The group insisted Dr K not record or publish their images or voices, expressing their desire to protect their image rights because they were there on behalf of "Chinese TV". Dr K explained to them that filming in a public place is legal in Britain. A man from the group said they loved Dr K's music but you "cannot share our images online" and we "will put a legal action into it". Dr K told him "we're in public" and "we're not in Communist China", at which point the man accused Dr K of racism.[18][19][20]
During a conversation with a woman from the same group, Dr K pointed towards the small Chinese flag she was holding and reached for it,[17][21] whereupon the Chinese man repeatedly shouted, "Why are you touching her?" and "Stop touching her!" Dr K recoiled and said he'd not touched the woman but the small flag she was holding.[22] When two uniformed British Transport Police officers arrived, one of them ordered Dr K to stop recording. A female officer told Dr K that, "because there’s money being made, and they work for a company", the Chinese group had requested the video be deleted. Dr K responded that she was acting like “private security” for the Chinese, an accusation she denied. She then told Dr K he couldn't say "we're not in China". Dr K cited his right to free speech, adding that he had not caused any trouble and had an implied right to film in a public place. The female police officer spoke to the Chinese group, but the video does not show any ensuing interactions.[20]
Following the incident, Kavanagh was interviewed by the media on the topic of the free-speech issues that he had raised. He joined journalist Mike Graham in his studio and appeared as a guest on Piers Morgan Uncensored on a subsequent evening. Both programmes were aired on TalkTV. Kavanagh told Morgan that his video clip already had "two strikes" against it and might be removed from his YouTube channel. He urged viewers to download the video in case it was permanently removed.[23][24][25]
Two weeks later, Dr K screened an email he quoted as originating from YouTube's legal team.[26] It appeared to request that he blur out the faces of some of the subjects shown on his video, citing YouTube's current privacy policy regarding the upload of videos that identify people without their consent.[27] The YouTube request ostensibly arose following a handful of alleged privacy infringement complaints.[28]
Professor of Politics Eric Kaufmann from the University of Buckingham, who was interviewed by a staff reporter from TalkTV, criticised the Chinese group for attempting to impose the authority of the Chinese Communist Party in Britain.[29]
In January 2025, Dr K's video of the incident was taken down by YouTube due to a "privacy complaint".[30] In response he uploaded the footage to a new channel called The Pianogate Channel and called for subscriptions there.[3
No comments:
Post a Comment