Good News: Undercover Mosque Documentary Cleared In Court

In January 2007 Britain's Channel Four Television aired a documentary called Undercover Mosque, in which a reporter went undercover at a London Mosque and filmed the horrendous hate speech regularly spewed within its premises.

The police protested and reported the documentary makers to a television watchdog agency.

Well, now the makers of the documentary have been vindicated in a British court.





From the BBC:

West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have apologised for
accusing the makers of a Channel 4 documentary of distortion.

The apology and the promise of £100,000 were made at the High Court on
Thursday.

It follows comments made about a Dispatches programme, Undercover
Mosque, which tackled claims of Islamic extremism in the West Midlands.

The police statement said the force was wrong to make the
allegations.

A press release issued by the police and the CPS in August 2007
claimed the Dispatches programme, broadcast in January of that year,
misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics with misleading
editing.

One preacher was shown saying a homosexual should be thrown off a mountain,
another that women were born deficient.

Police also reported Channel 4 to television watchdog Ofcom for
"heavily editing" the words of Islamic imams.

But in November, Ofcom rejected the police and CPS claims, and Channel
4 said it was going to sue the CPS and police for libel.

'Damage and distress'

The statement, released to the media after the High Court hearing by
West Midlands Police, said they accepted there had been no evidence that Channel
4 or the documentary makers had "misled the audience or that the programme was
likely to encourage or incite criminal activity".

It added that the Ofcom report showed the documentary had "accurately
represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter
responsibly and in context".

The police statement concluded: "We accept, without reservation, the
conclusions of Ofcom and apologise to the programme makers for the damage and
distress caused by our original press release."

Kevin Sutcliffe, deputy head of current affairs at Channel 4, said the
apology was a vindication of the programme team in exposing extreme views.

"Channel 4 was fully aware of the sensitivities surrounding the subject
matter but recognised the programme's findings were clearly a matter of
important public interest.

"The authorities should be doing all they can to encourage
investigations like this, not attempting to publicly rubbish them for reasons
they have never properly explained," he said.

David Henshaw, executive producer of Hardcash Productions, who made the
documentary, said it was a thorough and detailed programme, made over nine
months and at personal risk to the undercover reporter.

Bigotry and extremism

Channel 4 boss Julian Bellamy said they had had no choice but to pursue
action when the police and CPS refused to withdraw their remarks.

The programme infiltrated a number of mosques, one of which was Green
Lane Mosque in Small Heath, Birmingham.

An undercover reporter claimed to provide evidence that certain
speakers preached messages of religious bigotry and extremism.

Police initially investigated whether three of the people shown in the
programme could be prosecuted for inciting terrorism or racial hatred.

But they later switched their attention to the documentary makers,
suggesting they may have been guilty of stirring up racial hatred.

Channel 4 said £50,000 would be donated to the Rory Peck Trust for
freelance journalists and their families.

The broadcaster will also receive £50,000 to cover legal costs.

And, if you've never seen the Undercover Mosque documentary, here is the first of six parts.