Steve Greene wrote:
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1955818/Channel-4-wins-Muslim-'preachers-of-hate'-case.html
>
> Police and prosecutors have paid out a six-figure sum for wrongly
> claiming a television exposé of Islamist extremists was faked.
>
> The Crown Prosecution Service and West Midlands Police will apologise
> "unreservedly" at a High Court hearing today for libelling Channel 4's
> Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque.
>
> Legal sources said they will pay £50,000 damages and £50,000 costs for
> falsely claiming the documentary was "misleading" and would stir up
> racial hatred.
>
> The documentary, screened last year, showed "preachers of hate" making
> remarks alleged to be homophobic, anti-Semitic and .ist.
>
> Police were called in to investigate the clerics, but after six months
> dropped the inquiry and turned on Channel 4, asking prosecutors whether
> they could be charged for stirring up racial hatred.
>
> The CPS then issued a joint statement claiming the programme had
> distorted the views of the clerics by misleading editing. They also said
> it risked undermining "community cohesion''.
>
> Ofcom, the television regulator, rejected the complaints, triggering an
> avalanche of criticism of the police handling of the case and their
> pursuit of Muslim extremists.
>
> West Midlands Police and the CPS refused to withdraw their remarks,
> leading Channel 4 to sue for libel.
>
> Police and the CPS will accept at court that they were wrong and that
> there was "no evidence that the broadcaster or programme makers had
> misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or
> incite criminal activity".
>
> Television chiefs attacked the authorities for trying to "publicly
> rubbish them" and said they had been right for exposing the "abhorrent
> and extreme comments of fundamentalist preachers".
>
> Kevin Sutcliffe, the deputy head of current affairs at Channel 4, who
> oversees Dispatches, said: "This is a total vindication of the programme
> team in exposing extreme views being preached in mainstream British
> mosques.
>
> "The programme's findings were clearly a matter of important public
> interest.
>
> "The authorities should be doing all they can to encourage
> investigations like this, not attempting to publicly rubbish them for
> reasons they have never properly explained."
>
> Julian Bellamy, the head of Channel 4, added: "It was clearly vital to
> us that an important piece of journalism and the reputation of its
> makers was not undermined by these unjustified allegations."
>
> The damages will be donated to a charity for the families of journalists
> killed while on assignment.
>
> In its report last year, Ofcom said that "each and every quote was
> justified by the narrative of the programme and put fully in context".
>
> One cleric in Birmingham said the killer of a British Muslim soldier in
> Afghanistan was a "hero of Islam''.
>
> Other comments from individuals included that "Allah created the woman
> deficient", that homo.uals should be thrown off mountains and that
> young girls should be hit if they do not wear hijab.
Don't the BNP advocate that women are second rate citizens and should
stay at home to ease the employment problem and have babies, that
homo.uals are deviants and should be outlawed and that young girls
should be hit if they do wear a hijab. |