culture, to quote will gompertz, who�*s director of the barbican, artistic director of the barbican arts centre a truth, "and debate and disagreement about that truth "has to be the function of art. "but such is the rallying power of social media today "that debate is being stifled by self—censorship." do you agree? no, i don�*t agree with that. i don�*t... i�*m not in the business of self—censorship. and... do you fear some people — creatives — are? they worry so much now about what might be a vitriolic response from people on social media, you know, efforts to describe their work as toxic? well, i would guess that�*s part and parcel of creating work is thinking through how it might be received and deciding how much you care about that. i think that�*s probably always been the case of creating work, and it is very painful to be criticised or insulted. i think, as you said earlier, i... i�*m very sceptical and suspicious of phrases that become catchall terms for things because they�*re so useful — politically and culturally — in media. so when we think of a term like "cancel culture", and i can

studio , the former director of studio, the former director of the bbc proms and the barbican centre will opine that the artsouncil got it very wrong with its attempt to push the english national opera out of london. and of course, stefan kyriazis will be here and he'll update us on the latest from the west end, including a unique chance to step into the life of freddie mercury. all of that to come . mercury. all of that to come. but first with your latest news headlines, polly middlehurst . headlines, polly middlehurst. >> michael, thank you. good morning to you. well the top story from the newsroom today is that the national crime agency is now teaming up with social media crack down on media firms to crack down on social media posts by people smugglers who are encouraging asylum seekers to cross the engush asylum seekers to cross the english channel. the prime minister says the new partnership between law enforcement agencies and tech giants will tackle attempts to lure migrants into paying to make the journey group discounts free spaces for children and offers of false documents are all among the social