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10 December 2019
General Election 2019: Muslim Council of Britain accuses BBC of “failing to sufficiently report” on Conservative Islamophobia
Today the Muslim Council of Britain, the country’s leading British Muslim representative body has written to BBC Director General Tony Hall to raise its concerns about the lack of proportionate coverage of the Conservative Party’s “institutional Islamophobia”.
Reminding Mr Hall of the BBC’s responsibility as a public broadcaster to be impartial and consistent, the MCB has requested that “racism against Muslims be given equal importance to racism against others.”
The MCB’s Centre for Media Monitoring has been keeping a watch of the number, tone and prominence of BBC stories on the issue, which has received precious little attention by the broadcaster, despite statements by both the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly acknowledging and apologising for the issue.
MCB Secretary General, Harun Khan, said:
“The Conservative Party has an institutional, widespread problem with Islamophobia, which has been clearly documented both by the Muslim Council of Britain and other individuals, organisations and media outlets.
“Not only has the BBC not covered the full extent of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party that many in society feel should be being discussed this election, it has given platform to individuals who have used far-right Islamophobic hate. Melanie Phillips made an accusation that deception is a mainstream Muslim belief in The Times on 2nd December and was then a guest on Politics Live on 5th December.
“License payers, who include millions of British Muslims, are essentially paying to facilitate the incitement of hatred against themselves.”
ENDS
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