Posted on 11/19/2007 9:54:00 AM PST by mojito
Channel 4 has been vindicated by the media watchdog Ofcom after police complained about an investigative programme that exposed extremism in British mosques.
West Midland's police had faced criticism for targeting the producers of the show rather than the controversial preachers depicted in it.
Ofcom added fuel to that debate by praising Undercover Mosque as a "legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest."
advertisementThe watchdog added: "Ofcom found no evidence that the broadcaster had misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity.
"On the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts), Ofcom found that the broadcaster had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context."
Police claimed that the Dispatches programme had misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics with misleading editing.
Following today's ruling, the Channel 4 called the police's actions "perverse" and said they had, in some people's eyes, given "legitimacy to people preaching a message of hate".
The programme featured undercover recordings from speakers alleged to be homophobic, anti-Semitic, sexist and condemnatory of non-Muslims.
Excerpts from preachers and teachers included "Allah created the woman deficient" and "by the age of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force her (young girls) to wear hijab and if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her".
Other statements included "take that homosexual and throw him off the mountain" and "whoever changes his religion from Al Islam to anything else - kill him in the Islamic state".
Police initially launched an investigation into whether criminal offences had been committed at the mosques and other organisations featured in the programme.
They then said that it considered offences may have been committed by those involved in the production and broadcast of the programme, specifically in stirring up racial hatred.
After the Crown Prosecution Service advised that the prospect of conviction was unlikely, police referred Undercover Mosque to Ofcom, complaining that intense editing had misrepresented those featured in the programme.
Ofcom also rejected the 364 viewers' complaints it received after the programme was broadcast, which it said appeared to be part of a campaign.
From what I've been reading lately, this is becoming the norm in Merry Old England. Will the fall of the Empire include the home country?
We're not supposed to see that. This could cause unrest. We can't show that. They are peaceful, I tell you. Britain is a multicultural paradise.
West Midland? Don't they mean Odessa?
BUMP!
It seems to me that things have gotten more than a little ass-backwards when revealing the truth is caste as an act of hate. What about the acts of the Imams?
Here’s a clue folks. You know the world has just turned upside down, when homosexuals are considered fair game for anyone. I guess nothing trumps the Imams right to do as they please.
Now it’s Imam watch. Whose rights will be considered more sacred than their’s? Let’s hope they don’t advocate cannibalism or six year olds for prostitution, because whatever they do support, it will be okay once they are in the ‘can do no wrong’ zone.
;-)
When will the world speak up for the indigenous people of England?
Even though Muslims hate canines, what we need is a watchdog group named ImmamWatch.
It is English blood that flows through my veins, but I wouldn’t want to live there...at this time. Better to remain an uncivilized American.
Another sign of the suicide of the West. *sigh* I’ll be damned if I’m going down in dhimmitude.
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