One of Britain’s largest representative groups for Muslims has claimed that most of the coverage by UK media outlets of Muslim issues is negative and called for action to ensure such reports do not contribute to Islamophobia.
Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) analysed over 10,000 articles and news broadcasts during the last three months of 2018 and concluded there was a serious problem with the way Islam and Muslims were depicted. As part of the first quarterly analysis released by MCB’s newly-formed Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), the group launched a campaign this week to foster greater emphasis on fact checking as well as more responsible editorial decision making.
“The way that the media reports on Islam and Muslims plays a role in Islamophobia. This is not about censorship, this is about transparency,” said Miqdaad Versi from the MCB, who has been actively involved with the work of CfMM.
The new centre is described as an MCB project designed to improve the quality of reporting of Islam and Muslims in the media through constructive engagement. Its stated aim is to create a broad evidence base of inaccurate and biased stories in order to develop insights into potential areas of improvement.
“There is no doubt about the seriousness of Islamophobia within sections of British media. Even amongst the public, 58 percent believe the media is to blame for Islamophobia,” said Rizwana Hamid, Director for CfMM.
“The status quo has to change. Our goal is for there to be more responsible reporting through constructive dialogue with decision makers. A robust evidence-based methodology highlighting issues of deliberate misrepresentation and unconscious bias can only help increase transparency and accountability,” she said.
The study, titled ‘State of media reporting on Islam & Muslims’, found that 59 percent of all articles analysed associated Muslims with negative behaviour; 37 percent of articles in right-leaning and religious publications were categorised with the most negative rating of “very biased”; over a third of all articles misrepresented or generalised about Muslims; and terrorism was the most common theme.
The report uses a series of case study examples to exemplify its findings, with the BBC’s popular drama ‘The Bodyguard’ accused of pandering to stereotypes about Muslim women in hijab.
“As the first in a series of quarterly reports, CfMM hopes that by highlighting examples of coverage on Muslims and Islam, this can serve as a valuable resource for journalists and editors alike,” said report co-author Faisal Hanif.
British regional coverage was found to be "significantly more supportive" than national coverage, with television faring better than print overall.