UK media regulator Ofcom has fined the Islam Channel £20,000 (22,213€) for broadcasting a programme that contained “antisemitic hate speech.”
The watchdog ruled that an episode of The Rightly Guided Khalifas, a religious education series broadcast in November 2018, contained three breaches of the Broadcasting Code.
Explaining the decision, it said: “Ofcom’s Breach Decision found an episode of the programme The Rightly Guided Khalifas contained uncontextualized antisemitic hate speech which amounted to the abuse or derogatory treatment of Jewish people.
“The Breach Decision found this episode of The Rightly Guided Khalifas ascribed a perpetually negative characteristic to Jewish people; namely corrupting Holy Books and seeking the destruction of Islam in both ancient and more recent times.
“In addition, through the conflation of Israel and Jewish people the content characterised Jewish people as ‘tyrannical’ and having an ‘evil mind’. It was our decision that this content met Ofcom’s definition of hate speech and that Rule 3.2 was breached.
“The programme also used further negative and stereotypical terms to describe Jewish people, including that they were guilty of ‘this crime of distortion [of Quranic text]’.
“It also associated Jewish people with ‘tyranny’, ‘oppression’, ‘troublemaking’ and ‘poisonous acts’. We considered this constituted abusive and derogatory treatment of Jewish people in breach of Rule 3.3.
“In Ofcom’s view, this material would have been offensive to most people who do not share the antisemitic views expressed. We also considered this material would be highly offensive to Jewish people; practitioners of Judaism; and Christian and Muslim people (and others) who esteem the religion.
“In our view, there was insufficient context to justify the broadcast of such content, and it breached Rule 2.3 of the Code.”
The Islam Channel is a UK-based English language satellite television channel broadcast in 136 countries worldwide, including the UK.
