WHAT? 'Most British media are racist'

A leading British journalist and writer says most of the media in Britain have right-wing, nationalistic and even racist viewpoints.

Julian Petley said at the unveiling ceremony of his latest book Pointing the Finger: Islam and Muslims in the Contemporary UK Media that newspapers in Britain are more inclined toward right-wing perspectives than TV and Radio networks.

Petley said British newspapers have traditionally right-wing, nationalistic and even racist tendencies, that is why people can even see racist hatred against the Scots in the British media, IRNA reported.

Keynote Addresses: Professor Julian Petley

Petley who is a professor of Screen Media and Journalism at London's Brunel University and has widely published on the subject said among the British newspapers only The Guardian and The Independentare “to some extent” liberal though the two have a tiny circulation compared with right-wing papers.

Petley added that Radio and TV news networks are generally more liberal than the print media yet the situation is changing as the private sector -- especially media linked to Rupert Murdock -- takes hold in the industry.

Petley further stressed that even the BBC is joining the rightists as TV and Radio networks including the BBC are rapidly moving toward Islamophobic and anti-Muslim racist content in line with the ongoing process of shift in the media atmosphere.

WikipediaIslamophobia is the fear and/or hatred of Islam, Muslims or Islamic culture. Islamophobia can be characterised by the belief that all or most Muslims are religious fanatics, have violent tendencies towards non-Muslims, and reject as directly opposed to Islam such concepts as equality, tolerance, and democracy.

It is viewed as a new form of racism whereby Muslims, an ethno-religious group, not a race, are nevertheless constructed as a race.  A set of negative assumptions are made of the entire group to the detriment of members of that group.

Petley said the four beliefs are: all Muslims are the same, all Muslims are under the influence of religious teachings, all of them are lower than other people in moral, human, cultural and political terms and “all of them are considered a threat”.

Pointing the Finger: Islam and Muslims in the Contemporary UK Media is an edited collection by Julian Petley and Robin Richardson which was unveiled at a London university earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the unveiling ceremony featured a speech by AbdoolKarim Vakil the joint editor of Thinking Through Islamophobia: global perspectives and a professor at King's College, London.   Vakil said in his address that Islamophobia is effectively a new form of racism that tries to reduce Muslims to a race.more

This is one of the comments on the above story, please read the other comments to the story.

Ashamed to be British

5/24/2011 1:30:12 AM

The British media makes me ashamed to be British. It makes me feel like I am living in an uncivilized country