Bombshell report exposes attempts by Muslim Council of Britain group to censor UK media

Despite the CfMM claiming that 60 per cent of stories about Muslims are "offending" and negative, Policy Exchange found that just one complaint made by the group resulted in a newspaper being required to make a correction.

Policy Exchange revealed that CfMM, which sat on a working group at press regulator Ipso, counted factual reports of Islamist terror attacks in its 60 per cent figure of Islamophobic journalism, including a Manchester terror attack report by agency AP that accurately used the phrase "knife-wielding man yelling Islamic slogans".

CfMM also complained that it was "misleading" to refer to British Isis executioner Mohammed Emwazi, also known as 'Jihadi John', as a terrorist because he was never convicted.

Policy Exchange's report even made direct reference to GB News's coverage of predominantly Pakistani rape gangs.

It said: "In 2024, CfMM published a report attacking GB News for an alleged 'routine delegitimisation of Islam and Muslims,' referring among other things to its reporting of 'so-called grooming gangs’.

"By then it had, of course, long been established, including by multiple court cases and official reports, that grooming gangs were and are real.

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"There was also significant evidence that British Muslims, in particular British-Pakistanis, were overrepresented in the offender ranks relative to their population; and that the authorities had failed to act for fear of being accused of racism.

"This year, the point was again emphasised by Baroness Casey’s national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse."

CfMM specifically called out GB News's National Reporter Charlie Peters for his tenacious coverage of one of Britain's darkest scandals.

"The risk is that this response appears not to engage with the substance of the reports, but instead to attack the reporter," Policy Exchange said.

Other complaints made by the CfMM included criticising TV dramas for showing Muslim characters who do not want to wear a hijab, or who drink alcohol, or who are gay.

Concerns around the preservation of press freedom centre around CfMM's growing influence, with the BBC's news content director Richard Burgess last month speaking at the media monitoring unit's meeting in Parliament.

The Guardian has also cited CfMM's inaccurate research concerning GB News.

Andrew Gilligan and Damon Perry, who authored Policy Exchange's report, said: "This report provides all who need it with the evidence that the Centre for Media Monitoring is a bad-faith actor.

"It should not be engaged with or taken at face value by journalists, regulators or anyone else."

The Muslim Council of Britain, which opposed the UK Government's ban on 21 terror groups in 2001, created the CfMM in 2018 to promote “fair, accurate and responsible reporting of Muslims and Islam” and “change the narrative” about them.

Despite rejecting the suggestion that it maintains links with the CfMM now, GB News has found evidence that suggests the group only altered its language on its connection to the media monitoring unit over the weekend.

The now-changed website description said: "The Centre for Media Monitoring is a Muslim Council of Britain project."

However, the description has since been amended to say: "Academics and specialists across the world recognise that mainstream media reporting of Islam and Muslims is contributing to an atmosphere of rising hostility towards Muslims in Britain.

"Centre for Media Monitoring’s (CfMM) own findings reveal a serious problem in the way that British media reports about Islam and Muslims."

The Labour Party suspended ties in 2009 with the Muslim Council of Britain, which represents more than 500 mosques, schools and charities, after one of its leaders was accused of having supported violence against Israel.

In response to the Policy Exchange report, a spokesman for the Centre for Media Monitoring said: “This report is nothing but a politically motivated hitjob, riddled with inaccuracies, distortions and smears.

"It comes from an organisation that has long sought to influence our media into negatively framing British Muslims.

"We’re not surprised they’re upset as we call them out. They misrepresent our record, do not deal with the facts we present, and rely on guilt by association. Every major accusation falls apart under scrutiny.

"It’s laughable that they accuse us of censorship when our vision is simply responsible reporting of Islam and Muslims – is that really too much to ask?

"We stand by our rigorous findings and commitment to journalism serving the public interest.

"The Policy Exchange report includes a series of fabrications and in some cases defamatory claims. We do urge you to check their claims independently before repeating."