Criticism over focus on Islam in reports on terrorism

MORE THAN half of British news stories which mentioned terror, terrorists or terrorism also referred to Muslims or Islam, a new report has found.

This is almost nine times the amount perpetrators were identified as “far-right”, “neo-Nazi” or “white supremacist”, the analysis by the Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) said.

The report, published today, said that media coverage of terrorism has been “consistently inconsistent”.

But there have been improvements following the Christchurch attack in which Brenton Tarrant killed 51 Muslim worshippers, it added.

Rizwana Hamid, director of CfMM, said there was a “disproportionate focus” on Muslims and that headlines using terms such as “Allahu Akbar” implied that “religion is always the motivator”.

She added: “Whilst there now appears to be a recognition of the importance of consistency and the scale of the far-right threat amongst the broadcasters, and most of the press, there is still a long way to go.

“Inconsistencies remain, with a disproportionate focus on Muslims.

“Worst of all, headlines using religious terms such as ‘Allahu Akbar’ imply that religion is always the motivator, ignoring other factors such as criminal history and mental health issues which may be at play, and which are often mentioned when the perpetrator is not Muslim.

“However, in our interaction with editorial directors, managing editors, security correspondents and senior producers, there has generally been a willingness to reflect, and we hope our recommendations help improve standards for us all.”

The report, How The British Media Reports Terrorism, was based on an analysis of 16 terrorist attacks between 2015 and 2020 in America, Britain and Europe as well as the Christchurch attack.

The CfMM analysed more than 230,000 articles published in 31 mainstream British news websites, magazines and newswires.