Ofcom rules against hate preachers on British TV

Ofcom, the communications watchdog, has incited a series of rulings against so called “hate preachers” on British television. Several cases have been investigated by the regulators, comprising of mostly Muslim broadcasting bodies, and there have been some “serious” breaches of broadcasting guidelines.

One such case from a radio station in Leeds, called Radio Asian Fever, have been fined £4,000 for their breach of conduct.  It has been found that one of the stations’ presenters named “Sister Ruby Ramadan” actively attempted to incite physical violence and torture on homosexuals.

“If there are two such persons among you, that do this evil, the shameful act, what do you have to do? Torture them; punish them; beat them and give them mental torture,” said the presenter.

Jabbar Karim, the station’s managing director, said: “We are very embarrassed. This was a one-off incident which will never be repeated.”

This is only one of several cases that have been filed by Ofcom and reported by The Telegraph. Various other incidents and breaches of conduct have been reported and all despite a lengthy investigative report that was filed by anti-extremist think-tank Quilliam, nearly three years ago.

The author of said report, Tala Rajab, has come out and said the fresh findings by Ofcom raised serious questions over the regulation of broadcast material.

“If this had happened in a mosque the police would be right in pursuing a criminal investigation. But because they are being broadcast on television channels for some reason there seems to be little appetite for looking into these extreme messages.

“If these kind of comments were made against black people, for example, you can imagine a channel being shut down overnight, particularly if they had incited violence against a minority,” added Rajab.

An Ofcom spokesman said: “The majority of Islamic channels comply with our rules. However, where we identify issues through our monitoring or complaints we investigate fully and take firm enforcement action.”

 Ali Kirkby