# Why the UK banned Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479/why-the-uk-banned-hasan-piker-and-cenk-uygur
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479/why-the-uk-banned-hasan-piker-and-cenk-uygur.md
Podcast: [The Global Story](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479)
Published: 2026-06-03T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct8mkv
Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0nps0s3.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-global-story-6677479/episodes/why-the-uk-banned-hasan-piker-and-cenk-uygur
Duration seconds: 1620

## Resource

On Sunday, two prominent left-wing political commentators in the US — Hasan Piker and his uncle, Cenk Uygur – said they had been barred from visiting the UK. Both men were due to appear at the SXSW London festival, but say the British government blocked them from entering the country because of their criticism of Israel. The British government confirmed that it had denied them entry on the grounds that their presence in the UK “may not be conducive to the public good” but did not elaborate further. Their cases have sparked renewed debate about the limits of free speech in the UK. We speak to American political activist Shabbos Kestenbaum – who was due to debate Cenk Uygur in London – and to the legal academic and host of the BBC’s The Law Show, Joelle Grogan. Producers: Sam Chantarasak, Lucy Pawle and Aron Keller Executive producer: James Shield Mix: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins Photo: Hasan Piker speaks to members of the media at the venue for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani's election night rally in Brooklyn, New York, November 4, 2025. Credit: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-global-story-6677479/episodes/why-the-uk-banned-hasan-piker-and-cenk-uygur/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-global-story-6677479/why-the-uk-banned-hasan-piker-and-cenk-uygur.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.