An interesting story popped up this week regarding the editing of Undercover Mosque, a documentary produced by Channel 4 in which reporters secretly filmed footage inside a bunch of Britain’s mosques. Their conclusion being that statements made by three Imams in the film are proof that they are inciting racial hatred.
The West Midlands police requested the 56 hours of original footage in order to investigate whether such charges could be brought against any of the three Imams. After having worked closely with Channel 4 in the course of the investigation, the police turned around on Wednesday morning and laid a complaint – not against any of the three Imams who feature in the film – but against Channel 4.
The text of the complaint laid with Ofcom (regulator of the UK Communications industry) reads as follows:
"The Chief Constable’s concerns are that the broadcasting of this material in a form so altered from that originally delivered by the speaker is sufficient to undermine community cohesion and creates an unfair, unjust and inaccurate perception of both the speaker and sections of the Muslim Community within the West Midlands."
Which basically reads that Channel 4 misrepresented the three Imams by selectively editing comments and taking those comments out of the context in which they were made.
It will be bloody interesting to see what Ofcom comes back with on this. There have been a fair few cases of late regarding similar issues, from the BBC’s misrepresentation of the Queen , to ITV’s portrayal of what they inferred were a dying man’s final moments when in fact they weren’t, to the scamming of 14,000 kids out of their pocket money on a rigged Blue Peter phone-in. I’m not sure of the history of such complaints in the UK, but it does feel like the industry is coming under an increasing level of scrutiny.
And where documentaries such as Undercover Mosque are concerned that is a damned good thing. There is enough fear between Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK already without adding to that with shoddy reporting. I’m certainly not inferring there was shoddiness in this case – we’ll have to wait and see what the result of the Ofcom investigation says – but if it was there it will be important to root it out.
You can find clips of the original documentary on YouTube, starting with the first segment here. The two clips below are part of the same news item reporting the story and include interviews with one of the Imams filmed in the documentary and Channel 4′s Commissioning Editor.
Channel 4 Undercover Mosque Documentary ‘Distorted’, Part 1, powered by YouTube
Channel 4 Undercover Mosque Documentary ‘Distorted’, Part 2, powered by YouTube
I recommend anyone who is interested in this read "The Islamist" by Ed Husain. Very interesting insight into these mosques and to whom in the UK is responsible for any inciting of hatred