“A Farce”: Piers Morgan Compares Himself To Nelson Mandela, Complains Of Being Censored In “Wrong Call By ITV”

Caroline Frost
·2 min read
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Piers Morgan has called his controversial exit last year from British commercial station ITV “a farce”, but an episode he hopes focused everyone’s minds on the importance of free speech.

He also slammed ITV for “censoring him”, following his comments on morning show Good Morning Britain regarding the Duchess of Sussex’s statements about mental health during her interview with Oprah Winfrey.

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At the time, Morgan’s remarks that he “didn’t believe a word” caused 58,000 people to complain to the UK TV regulator. Ofcom later rejected the complaints, saying limiting Morgan’s views would be a “chilling restriction” on free expression. The regulator, however, only rejected complaints against ITV because Morgan’s co-presenters at the time challenged his views. The following day, he got into an on-air beef with another presenter and walked off the set. Invited to apologise by ITV, Morgan opted to resign.

Now, Morgan says, “I used to think I was uncensored, and then of course when I left Good Morning Britain, it turned out that I actually was being censored in the sense that I was told I had to apologise for disbelieving Princess Pinocchio or I would have to leave the building.

“So I took the leave-the-building option, which I thought was a sad moment for me and for the show. I thought it was the wrong call by ITV.

“It was all a bit dramatic, but of course what it really did was focus everyone’s minds to, ‘What is free speech?’

“I thought the whole thing was a farce, and I’m delighted that actually as a result of the farce, we’ve ended up with a whole network which is now dedicated to preventing that kind of farce from recurring.”

Morgan will soon debut his new show – to be aired on TalkTV in the UK, FOX Nation in the US and Sky in Australia – which he says will “uncancel those who have been cancelled.”

He has also likened himself to former South African President Nelson Mandela.

“I feel like Nelson Mandela when he came out of prison,” Morgan said. “It’s like the long walk to free speech freedom.”

Lest we forget, Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his political activities against the country’s racist apartheid regime, and later became the country’s first Black President.

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