'UK press regulator has given newspapers green signal to attack Muslims'

Channel 4 News presenter Fatima Manji alleges Independent Press Standards Organisation of discrimination

Channel 4 News presenter Fatima Manji alleged the UK regulator of discrimination, accusing it of giving a green signal to newspapers for attacking Muslims.

Her accusation came after Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) cleared Kelvin MacKenzie, a well-known UK media person, over his criticism against Manji when she wore a Hijab while reporting Nice terror attacks.

Manji is of the opinion that the press regulator has actually condoned abuse by giving a 'clean chit' to MacKenzie who criticised her for wearing Hijab and ridiculed her.



“What Ipso has done is effectively sent out the green light for newspapers to attack minorities and Muslims in particular. To know … that it is effectively open season on minorities on Muslims and minorities in particular is frightening.

“The fact that Kelvin MacKenzie can write a column and suggest that I am somehow sympathetic to a perpetrator of a terrorist attack, and that somehow I am not ‘like the rest of us’, that I’m the other, means that other people are open to attack.”

MacKenzie, in his column that published on July 18 in The Sun, accused Channel 4 News of ‘editorial stupidity’ because it allowed the Muslim presenter, Manji, to observe Hijab when “there had been another shocking slaughter by a Muslim” in Nice.



Manji – and some 1,700 others – complained to Ipso, saying the column broke the rules specified by the organisation. However, Ipso on Wednesday gave the ruling that as per the circumstances MacKenzie mere used his right of free speech and questioned about the presenter’s headdress.

“While the columnist’s opinion was undoubtedly offensive to the complainant, and to others, these were views he had been entitled to express,” the ruling states.

Manjie now fears for her safety. “One contributor to a BBC Radio debate approvingly spoke of the idea that I should be lynched,” she said.

She also went on to accuse The Sun of hypocrisy and said: “I was contacted privately by individuals who work at the The Sun and at News UK to say that they were embarrassed and that they were ashamed that Kelvin MacKenzie was allowed to peddle such hatred,” she said. “But they had to do it in private...".

“I do wear the headscarf as a symbol of my religious faith and it in no way affects my reporting.”

The press regulator in its ruling has given a detailed response to Manji’s complaint. It ruled: “The article did not include a prejudicial or pejorative reference to the complainant on the grounds of religion. The article did refer to the complainant but it did so to explain what triggered the discussion about a legitimate subject of debate: whether newsreaders should be allowed to wear religious symbols. In the committee’s view, the columnist was permitted to identify what prompted his discussion, rather than merely raising it in the abstract.

“Furthermore, he was entitled to express his view that, in the context of a terrorist act which had been carried out ostensibly in the name of Islam, it was inappropriate for a person wearing Islamic dress to present coverage of the story.”

The article originally appeared on The Guardian