Three weeks ago, The Agenda daily broadcast on the Islam Channel was mysteriously taken off air. This is the Islam Channel’s flagship programme, one of the few on British TV that gives a serious platform to anti-war views.
Presented by anti-war campaigner and leading journalist Yvonne Ridley, The Agenda has run for two years and was coming up to its 500th edition. It provides 4-and-a-half hours of live TV every week, repeated in the evening.
The Agenda has blanket coverage in the Muslim community among satellite TV owners, and a growing band of non-Muslims who found a serious broadcast which took a look at politics and current affairs at the grass roots. Last year audiences were estimated at 900,000+ in Europe alone, but the programme also went across Asia and the East. Its greatest followers are women at home during the day — those women have no political viewing because there’s no substitute.
And yet the programme has been taken off air with no explanation.
A spokesperson for the company told MWAW on January 31 that the Islam Channel is “in the process of restructuring its programming” and that this was “just a business decision” by the company. The spokesperson said it was “nothing to do with it [the programme] not being popular”.
If a programme is popular, it is usually a “good business decision” to maintain it. More importantly, there is a strong public interest case for the broadcast to continue.
FInally, if the channel is “restructuring” its programming, why was The Agenda taken off air BEFORE restructuring had been agreed?
People familiar with the Islam Channel say they fear this is a political decision, motivated by real or imaginary pressure from the authorities, or by hostilty to the programme’s critical approach.
Please contact the Channel now to register your support for the programme and for Yvonne Ridley. Yvonne is a stalwart of the anti-war movement. In 2003 she was sacked from Al-Jazeera because of her opposition to the war on Iraq, and because she set up NUJ branch at the channel.
Please contact the Islam Channel now:
mohamed.ali@islamchannel.tv
pr@islamchannel.tv
Tel. 0207 374 4511
