In the aftermath of Andrew Gilligan’s report on Lutfur Rahman and the domination of Tower Hamlets politics by the Islamic Forum Europe, the Islamic Forum Europe persuaded 1,000 of its supporters to send complaints about the programme in to OFCOM.
They have all been rejected.
Channel 4’s Britain’s Islamic Republic, which attrated more than 1,000 complaints and was branded a “dirty little programme” by former MP George Galloway, has been cleared by Ofcom.
Steve Boulton Productions made the Dispatches investigation into a “fundamentalist Muslim group”, which attracted 205 complaints to the regulator and more than 800 to the broadcaster.
It was fronted by investigative reporter Andrew Gilligan and claimed the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) had infiltrated the Labour party and Respect party and was exerting influence over Tower Hamlets Council in London.
It also probed Galloway’s relationship with the IFE and included secretly filmed footage taken in the East London Mosque, the London Muslim Centre and the studios of IFE radio show Easy Talk.
The film went out in March and was described by Galloway as “another camera-up-the-jumper film” from the “tiresome and fevered” current affairs strand.
Ofcom investigated the film against four criteria of its Broadcasting Code, but found it had not broken any of the rules.
It said the doc was “clearly part of Channel 4s distinct public service remit” and that it made clear its allegations related to the IFE only and were not representative of all Muslims.
The programme also represented the views of the IFE in response to the allegations, Ofcom said, and there was no evidence that its audience was materially misled.
MP George Galloway has attacked a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation into his relationship with the Islamic Forum of Europe , branding it a “dirty little programme”
Given that the content of the Dispatches was demonstrably true, I wonder why they bothered.
