British TV presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk has made a fresh defence of his anti-Arab comments that sparked a row over racism and led to the BBC suspending his daily talkshow.
"I do believe very firmly in the right of free speech," the former Labour MP said in an interview with the Tonight programme, due to be broadcast on ITV tonight. "I was exercising that right."
He repeated his apology for offence caused by his Sunday Express article, headlined "We owe the Arabs nothing", which asked: "What do (Arabs) think we feel about them? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors?
"I regret that I have caused any offence," he said. "Did I condemn all Arabs? No, I clearly did not. The evidence says that. Do I regret causing offence? Yes, of course I do.
"There is an enormous amount of intellectual and political bullying going on in this country, where ordinary, decent good people who have strong points of view don't feel any more that they can express them," Mr Kilroy-Silk said.
Muslim and race relations groups attacked him over the column, prompting the BBC on Friday to suspend his daytime chat show Kilroy, which has 1.2 million viewers.
The BBC said it would investigate the controversial article and that it "strongly disassociated itself" from the views expressed.
In comments at the weekend, the presenter also pointed out that the column had been republished in error and had caused no offence when it originally appeared in April last year in response to opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq. "It is not what I would have said today," he noted.