British police refer mosque documentary to watchdog

BRITISH police yesterday have made an official complaint to the country’s television regulator, saying a documentary about British mosques had featured misleading footage.

The Channel 4 Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque, broadcast in January, purported to feature “chilling sermons” from Saudi-trained preachers, secretly recorded by an undercover reporter.

The programme’s website said: “Dispatches reveals how a message of hatred and segregation is being spread throughout the UK and examines how it is influenced by the religious establishment of Saudi Arabia.”

The claims were investigated by police in central England, who found there was insufficient evidence to charge the speakers featured in the documentary.

Instead, prosecutors said the footage, which provoked anger among Britain’s Muslims, had been “heavily edited” and the speeches were taken out of context.

“The splicing together of extracts from longer speeches appears to have completely distorted what speakers were saying,” said Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Bethan David.

Police then turned their attention to whether the programme-makers themselves were guilty of inciting racial hatred.

But detectives concluded there was not enough evidence and have made a formal complaint to Ofcom, the television watchdog.

Channel 4 denied any wrongdoing, saying the police had no evidence for their allegations and that it was confident of defending itself against any complaint of unfairness.

The row is the latest controversy to embroil the publicly owned broadcaster.

In May, it was severely criticised for its handling of a race row on last year’s Celebrity Big Brother while in July, it was fined after a show asked viewers to phone in to take part in a quiz, even though winners had already been chosen.