News Desk |
A study held by the Muslim Council of Britain suggests that the British media directly contributes to propagate the negative image of Muslims.
Grand research analysed 10,000 news articles and broadcasts in the UK from 2018 and found traces of British media’s biased behaviour towards Muslims. The study found “serious problems” in the way British media reports about Islam or Muslims, its authors said.
59% of print media articles analysed associated Muslims with negative behaviour while more than a third “misrepresented or made generalisations” about the community.
You need to ensure that when you write a negative story it is fair and reflective and doesn’t generalise about all Muslims and feed into a broader far-right narrative.
The study found that ‘The Mail’ accounted for a greater proportion of negative news on Muslims, with 78% of its stories featuring Muslims having negative themes – above an already-high industry average of 59%.
The New Statesman, Observer, and Guardian accounted for least to portray Muslims in a negative light, according to the 11,000 articles and news broadcast during the final three months of last year.
The report also stated that the far-right were provided greater coverage in the media that prompted them to stabilise their agendas.
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A recent poll held by group Hope not Hate that 60% of the people believe “Islam is generally a threat to western civilisation” and more than half believe “Islam is generally a threat to the British way of life”.
“As the first in a series of quarterly reports, the Centre for Media Monitoring hopes that by highlighting examples of coverage on Muslims and Islam, it can serve as a valuable resource for journalists,” said the study’s co-author Faisal Hanif.
Another member of the Muslim Council of Britain, Miqdaad Versi stated that he did not want news outlets to stop negative reporting of Muslims, but pleaded journalists to check the tone of the coverage.
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“You need to ensure that when you write a negative story it is fair and reflective and doesn’t generalise about all Muslims and feed into a broader far-right narrative,” he stated. “In addition to that, there’s an issue of standing back and looking at all the stories out there and seeing if we’re reflecting all the stories. Are we only covering the worst Muslims out there?”