Channel 4 wins Muslim 'preachers of hate' case
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 sexist.
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 homosexuals should be thrown off mountains and that
young girls should be hit if they do not wear hijab.
date: Thu, 15 May 2008 02:11:55 +0100
author: Steve Greene lid
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