Posted on 08/08/2007 8:07:19 PM PDT by jjw
CHANNEL Four have come under fire for their Dispatches programmes, Undercover Mosque and Britain Under Attack, which cops believe incited religious hatred.
West Midlands Police has made a formal complaint to Ofcom after an inquiry into the editing of Undercover Mosques.
They also asked the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider whether a prosecution under the Public Order Act 1986 should be brought against the broadcaster for showing material likely to stir up racial hatred.
But the CPS said there was insufficient evidence that racial hatred had been stirred up as a direct consequence of the programme.
The Dispatches programme, broadcast in January, featured footage shot at a number of mosques, including one at which a preacher praised the Taliban for killing British soldiers.
Confirming that police had now made a formal complaint to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, Assistant Chief Constable Anil Patani said: “The priority for West Midlands Police has been to investigate the documentary and its making with as much rigour as the extremism the programme sought to portray.”
Mr Patani said the CPS’s reviewing lawyer, Bethan David, considered 56 hours of footage, of which only a small part was used in the programme.
She found different extracts from longer speeches appeared to have been spliced together and “completely distorted” what the speakers were saying.
She added that it was a "heavily-edited television programme apparently taking out of context aspects of speeches which in their totality could never provide a realistic prospect of any convictions.”
Meanwhile the Metropolitan Police said they were looking into the Dispatches edition broadcast on Monday night, Britain Under Attack, which explored the roots of Islamic extremism in the UK.
It featured a man known as “Abu Muhammed”, his face disguised by a scarf, who told British Muslims they were “in a state of war” and said the July 7 bombings were “justified”.
A Met spokesman said: “We are assessing the content of a Dispatches programme broadcast on August 6 to determine if any offences may have been disclosed.
“We will also be liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service in due course.”
Responding to news that police had complained to Ofcom, Channel 4 said they were confident of defending themselves.
A spokesman said: “We believe the offensive views expressed by the people revealed in the programme speak for themselves.
“We didn’t put these words into people’s mouths and all extracts were carefully contextualised.
“The West Midlands Police have provided no evidence whatsoever to support their allegations.”
Meanwhile the general secretary of one of the mosques featured in the documentary has welcomed the police’s decision to report the broadcaster to Ofcom.
Shouaib Ahmed, from the Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, said the programme had given a misleading impression of the place of worship.
He said: "The way the programme was presented was wrong, and gave an unfair impression of the mosque, especially to our non-Muslim friends.
“We have not ruled out further action against the documentary makers.”
Hate crime laws being used to silence politically incorrect speech.
It'd be just spiffy if you had used the word 'legal' prior to the word action there, guy.
Thank goodness for the 1st Amendment.
That's precisely (one of) their intended purpose(s).
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2668560761490749816
Dispatches - Undercover Mosque
All time views: 113,824
Save yourself and convert Islam early...avoid the rush.
Ofcourse the dhimmini cops won’t investigate the hatred being stirred up IN the mosques. They even have video proof of it now.
If that's what he meant, he would have said it. I mean, what are the civilians going to do, hit him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper and tell him "Bad, cop, No donut!"? Especially when the after action report will show that the documentary makers were a bunch of heavily armed right wing racists.
Note: I didn't say they were racists, just that the report would show them to be such.
Muslims on one side trying to kill, convert or enslave you, the government on the other side, telling you that you can't even say what is happening.
I suggest everyone watch Dispatches: Undercover Mosque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFQWuk4nuo
It will definately impact you.
The UK is getting so patethic.
What is wrong over there? Just read another thread where an apartment owner might be charged for throwing out a robber from his third floor apartment and the would be thief got injured. I am amazed.
England has gone completely mad, they’re committing suicide.
When the bombs go off in the U.K., the British public will know who to blame...the P.C. whack left!
The truth speaks for itself. Non-Muslim friends?
Who the heck are they, ostriches?
Hi Pacelvi,
The UK police have not been shy in prosecuting Muslim extremists for inciting hatred in the past. Several have been imprisoned, and others are being tried, for their part in the Danish cartoon protests a while back for eaxample. Several others have been kicked out of the UK or banned frokm entering in the first place. UK police were investigating the preachers found in the Channel 4 documentary with a view to prosecuting them as well. However, the police must, in this regard, have a reason for criticising Channel 4.
In any case, this case is by no means closed and with appeals etc convictions may occur later if warrented.
The UK is not perfect. We have our problems with immigration and crime etc. However, these are no worse than in any other country in the Western world including the US.
My country really isn’t pathetic. Consider these basic facts:
1) The UK has the toughest sentencing of criminals in Europe.
2) The UK is tightening its borders with a new Border Force and the introduction of an Australian style skill-points immigration system. At worst, the UK currently has 500,000 illegal immigrants in the UK. This compares to 12 million plus in the US. In the UK, an amnesty has been ruled out. The UK’s Muslim population is only 2-3%. Some statistics suggest that this figure is higher in the US.
3) The UK is the only country in the West to have fully committed its forces to combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both political parties in the UK support our responsibilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the US, the Democrats (equivalent to the UK’s ruling Labour Party) are full-bent on pulling out US troops from Iraq and seem confused about Afghanistan.
Please,mate, come and visit the UK off the tourist track. Visit Cornwall, the Lake Distict, the Brecon Beacons. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Don’t let these contaversial news stories about the UK put you off. They are usually (as in Daily Mail stories) gross distortions or if true make the papers precisely beacuse they are contraversial and not the norm.
The Muslims are in control of the West Midlands Police?
I’d be surprised mate if 5% of West Midlands police weren’t white British let alone Muslim.
Left wing MSM get caught making stuff up for a story, and not for the first time recently.
Not that much of a suprise.
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