Media Workers Against the War is launching an award for the worst and best reporting of Islam in the UK media. The awards will be for:
- The worst headline;
- The worst reporting;
- The best reporting.
Nominations follow below. Please send in your own nominations, for items published or broadcast in the last few months, as a comment to this post, or to mwaw@btinternet.com — a shortlist will be announced in a few weeks, and you to be able to vote on this site for your choice among the nominations.
The nominations so far:
- For the worst headline:
“Muslim majority schools ‘pose security threat and should be closed’” (The Daily Mail, Jan 22, puts a nuclear headline on a damp squib of a story)
“Barrack attack correction” (The Sun, Jan 15 buries it’s one-paragarph apology for he fact that it’s October story about a soldier’s home in Windsor being vandalised by Muslims was a pack of lies.)
“EU warned of new wave of illegal immigrants [from North Africa]” (The Guardian’s story on January 16 drowned in repetitions about “waves of illegal immigrants” who are set to “inundate” Europe from North Africa)
“Islamists use raid to stir up UK Somalis” (The Telegraph, Jan 14, smears opposition to the US assault on Somalia as all the work of fundamentalists)
“Target the preachers of hate, not [BNP Ballerina] Simone [Clarke]” (The Sun, January 16, says Muslims are worse than the BNP)
“Misbah wears burqa to pro-Taliban madrassa” (The Herald, Jan 12, joyfully sums up the entire UK media’s reporting of the custody battle over 12-yr-old Misbah Rana, also known as Molly Campbell, which was dominated by the assumption that Muslims just want to put women in a burqa.)
[our thanks to islamophobia-watch.com for help with compiling this list]
- For the worst reporting
1. The “Dispatches” documentary “Undercover Mosque“, produced by HardCash productions and first broadcast by Channel 4 on January 15.
2. Bobby Pathak’s article “Britain’s new preachers of hate“, in the Mirror on January 11 — which merely took the transcript of the Dispatches programme (see above) and re-published it with a few tiny modifications. This was part of a massive media hype about the programme.
3. The Mail on Sunday (Jan 21) article by Martin Smith, “I cannot shake your hand, sir. I’m a Muslim and you’re a man“, about a Muslim policewoman who refused to shake hands with Met chief Sir Ian Blair — at a time when half the country would refuse to shake the man’s hand. All part of the media’s notion that Muslims are the “enemy within” who cannot be trusted.
4. The Telegraph’s executive editor Con Coughlin’s comment piece on January 10, welcoming the assault by a US AC-130 gunship on Islamists and civilians in Somalia.
- For the best reporting:
1. The “Analysis” programme on BBC Radio 4 on December 28 entitled “Telling Muslim Stories“
2. The documentary “Generation 7/7” presented by Bobby Friction
