I Was Called Mad for Cancelling My TV Licence — Now They Say I Was Right

By Asher Sasson (Pen-name)

Back in 2021, I did something that, to many of my Jewish friends, seemed absurd: I cancelled my TV licence.

It wasn’t about saving money. It wasn’t even about watching less telly. It was about principle. 

That year’s Gaza conflict was a breaking point. I watched in disbelief as the BBC’s coverage twisted itself into knots to avoid stating the obvious: that Israel was under attack, and that Hamas — a proscribed terrorist organisation — was firing rockets at civilians. Context vanished. Victimhood was misrepresented. And terrorism was politely rebranded as “militancy”.

What made it all the more painful was the timing. Just weeks earlier, the BBC had broadcast a Holocaust documentary featuring my grandfather. It was a moment of immense pride for our family — a national platform honouring his memory. But as the BBC’s coverage of the war unfolded, that pride curdled into something else entirely: betrayal. The very same institution that had just told my family’s story of persecution was now misrepresenting attacks on Jews in real time.

So I acted. I cancelled my licence. I changed the way I watched television. I refused to fund a broadcaster I no longer believed in. Friends thought I was being dramatic. “Mad,” some said. Over the top.

But now? Now people say I was right.

In the years since, the cracks have widened into chasms. The BBC’s failure to report on antisemitism — or worse, to reinforce it through omission and distortion — is no longer subtle. And in the wake of October 7th, the rot is impossible to ignore.

Here’s just a handful of examples that confirm why I walked away — and why others are now doing the same:

Glastonbury 2024: BBC coverage platformed artists calling for a cultural boycott of Israel, with no challenge or context — despite the Home Office’s concerns about extremism.

October 2023: The BBC refused to call Hamas terrorists — even after they slaughtered entire Israeli families and abducted babies.

December 2021: The BBC falsely claimed that Jewish teenagers on a Chanukah bus provoked an antisemitic attack. The story was later debunked — but the damage was done.

May 2021: During the Gaza conflict, BBC headlines prioritised Palestinian casualty figures without context — often omitting the rocket fire on Israeli civilians entirely.

Ongoing: BBC News has repeatedly invited openly anti-Zionist and extremist guests without properly identifying their affiliations.

Social Media: BBC reporters have been exposed sharing pro-Hamas or antisemitic content, yet often face little or no disciplinary action.

Editorial Standards: Internal whistleblowers have alleged that Jewish staff feel unsupported or silenced in raising concerns.

The phrase I keep hearing now is: You were ahead of your time.

I didn’t cancel my licence as a protest for show. I did it because I couldn’t live with the cognitive dissonance of funding something that felt, at its core, hostile to who I am. As a British Jew, I felt erased. Misrepresented. Betrayed.

I’m not here to tell anyone else what to do. But I am saying this: sometimes the unpopular decision is the correct one. Sometimes the canary in the coal mine isn’t mad — just early.