The right-wing press has been running articles, evidently inspired by the Quilliam Foundation, accusing Muslim TV channels of inciting hatred against the LGBT community. (See "Muslim fanatics spouting on British TV: Extremists use fringe stations to call for terror, murder and the torture of gay people" in the Daily Mail and "Preachers of hate who spread their violent word on British TV channels" in the Sunday Telegraph.)

These reports in turn prompted a poorly worded piece to appear this week in Pink News which clearly led its readers to believe that Islam Channel had been promoting homophobic hate speech on air.

The incident at the core of the articles actually involved a Leeds-based radio station, Radio Asian Fever, which was fined £4,000 for breaching broadcasting rules in programmes involving a presenter called "Sister Ruby Ramadan". But readers of the Pink News article were given to believe that the incident took place on Islam Channel, as is evidenced by the harsh reaction – condemnations and calls for the revocation of Islam Channel's licence posted on the Pink News comments page.

Islam Channel's lawyers promptly contacted Pink News and made clear that the article was defamatory and offensive and should be rectified immediately with a published apology. The result has been the prompt and complete removal of the mention of Islam Channel from a re-worded article and a published apology as follows:

"A previous version of this story was incorrect. The Islam Channel should not have been linked to the issue of homophobic hate speech in this article, and the Islam Channel would like to point out that none of its presenters have ever aired offensive views about gay people. PinkNews.co.uk sincerely apologies for any offence caused."

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Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman reports:

The Evening Standard has published a fulsome apology to Isabella Freeman, who is Assistant Chief executive of our borough, and in charge of our legal services. The newspaper, edited by Sarah Sands and owned by Russian oligarch, Evgeny Lebedev, claimed back in May that Isabella Freeman had 'blamed Muslim voters for alleged voter fraud in the borough' and had 'showed a lack of care about alleged voter fraud in Tower Hamlets and was involved in a deliberate cover-up'. I wrote to the proprietor, Mr Lebedev, of the Evening Standard at the time, inviting him to visit our borough, to see things for himself. He did not see fit to reply.

The newspaper has now been forced to accept that its allegations were entirely untrue. Instead it accepted that our council has the most robust systems and processes permitted under election law to ensure the integrity of the electoral register and identify any malpractice. It also accepted that our borough electronically scans 100 per cent of postal votes and rejects any that have non matching signatures.

These deeply damaging and utterly false claims were published by the Evening Standard at the height of an obvious campaign by Sarah Sands and the Evening Standard to support the Boris Johnson Mayoral campaign. The Evening Standard wished to convey the impression that voter fraud was rife in our borough, and therefore could, in a tightly fought election, influence the result. The false claims about Isabella Freeman came after weeks of sustained hostile reporting from the Evening Standard, which included late night doorstepping and harassment of senior council officials by Evening Standard journalists.

The editor of the Evening Standard, Sarah Sands, took a personal interest in running stories that were both highly critical and inaccurate. Sadly, there were others, including Conservative leader, Councillor Peter Golds, who were more than happy to assist the Evening Standard in its disgraceful campaign.

Isobella Freeman has rightly been vindicated of all of the claims made by the Evening Standard. I am delighted that the newspaper has been obliged to apologise, although this will do little to undo the personal damage it has already caused.

I look forward to hearing the editor of the Evening Standard has apologised to Isabella Freeman, in person.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman's blog, 16 August 2012

See also Evening Standard, 15 August 2012

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The Sunday Express has apologised and paid damages to a London school it falsely claimed taught an extreme form of Islam.

Northern & Shell's Sunday title published a front-page story on 12 June 2011, headlined "Spies in schools to hunt fanatics", in which it wrongly stated that the King Fahad Academy in Acton, west London, taught extreme Islam. The article, which was also published on the paper's website, falsely suggested that the academy school had been infiltrated by Islamic fanatics.

Clare Kissin, counsel for the King Fahad Academy, said in a statement at the high court in London on Tuesday: "The King Fahad Academy does not teach an extreme form of Islam, nor does it teach its students antisemitism or any form of racism and it has not been infiltrated by Islamic fanatics."

The Sunday Express apologised for the article and said it regretted the distress caused. The paper agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in damages and legal costs to the school.

Dr Sumaya Alyusuf, director of the King Fahad Academy, said in a statement: "I am very pleased that the newspaper has withdrawn and apologised for these allegations. The school can now concentrate on its mission to provide a world class international education to students through a well-balanced curriculum, which aims to produce citizens who appreciate the multicultural world in which we live."

Guardian, 31 July 2012

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