Ash Sarkar says she will ‘never work with SXSW again’ after Hasan Piker visa row
Ash Sarkar has said she will never work with SXSW again after withdrawing from the festival over its handling of the Hasan Piker visa row, accusing organisers of failing to defend invited speakers barred from entering the UK.
The Novara Media commentator pulled out of SXSW London after organisers responded to the Home Office’s decision to revoke travel authorisations for the American political commentators Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur with a short statement saying entry decisions were a matter for the government and the individuals concerned.
For Sarkar, that response – rather than the Home Office decision itself – proved the breaking point.
The pair had been due to appear at the inaugural London edition of the festival before being prevented from travelling to Britain.
Piker, one of the world’s largest political streamers, had been scheduled to speak on a panel titled ‘How the American left learned to speak the internet’, while Uygur, founder of The Young Turks, was due to appear at a discussion on tech and power.
In a statement issued ahead of the event, SXSW London said it was aware the two speakers were unable to travel to the UK.
“Decisions on entry to the UK are a matter for the Home Office and the individuals concerned,” organisers said.
“I took the view that the role of South by Southwest would be to facilitate some kind of remote digital participation,” Sarkar told Morning Wire.
“It never crossed my mind that if they were to release a statement, that statement wouldn’t include criticism and objection to government interference into their programming.”
The controversy has cast an unexpected shadow over the SXSW London event, with the gathering positioning itself as a major new fixture for the tech, media and creative industries.
The Home Office said the pair’s Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) had been revoked after an assessment that their presence in the UK may not be “conducive to the public good”.
Piker and Uygur have both claimed the decision was linked to their criticism of Israel and the war in Gaza.
In April, Piker said “I’m a lesser evil voter and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.” He also previously claimed that “America deserved 9/11.” Uygur has a history of making controversial statements about Israel and has been accused or using antisemitic tropes and making highly derogatory comments about women.
‘A bare minimum’
Sarkar said her objection centred on what she saw as SXSW’s failure to defend invited speakers once the decision had been made.
“If I had been invited by any organisation to travel internationally to address an audience and something similar had happened to me, I would expect it as a bare minimum that they would object in the strongest possible terms in their public communications,” she said.
Zara Rahim, a political strategist who had been due to appear alongside Piker, also withdrew from SXSW London and publicly criticised both the Home Office’s decision and the festival’s response.
“I personally won’t work with them ever again”, she added.
She added that conferences and festivals which rely on high-profile speakers to attract audiences have a responsibility to defend them when controversies arise: “If you can’t stand up for your speakers when they’ve done nothing criminal, they’ve done nothing illegal, then they shouldn’t be allowed to make vast sums of money from ticket sales on the likeness and reputation of those speakers”.
The row comes as SXSW attempts to establish its London event as a European counterpart to its influential Austin festival, bringing together founders, investors, politicians and media figures under one banner.
Instead, one of the biggest talking points of the week has centred on two speakers who never made it to the stage.
“If you are a platform which makes money from the facilitation of debate and discussion, then it is a bare minimum that you defend the principle that lawfully protected free speech is not a matter for the government,” Sarkar added.