A new study says that right-wing news channel GB News ‘hates Islam and Muslims,” arguing that its negative portrayals fuel civil unrest and exacerbate community tensions.

The Centre for Media Monitoring (CFMM), which published the report ‘GB News: A Snapshot of Anti-Muslim Hate’, says there is a structural and systematic bias in GB News’ reporting about British Muslims.

The report is scathing about the regulator Ofcom and urges it to take action on the broadcasting of biased content.

The study — conducted over two years, assessing GB News, BBC News and Sky News — speaks of GB News and its “excessive” focus on Muslims bordering on an “obsession” that “regularly demonises their beliefs”. 

Its key findings showed that GB News mentioned Muslims OR Islam more than 17,000 times in its output — 50% of total mentions on UK news channels.  

Stories about Islam are “overwhelmingly negative” and fail to understand the diverse nature of Muslim communities in the UK.

“We have concluded that GB News hates Islam and Muslims,” says the report. “That may appear to be a bold claim, but it is hard to come to any other conclusion once you analyse GB News’ output as we have done at the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM).“

“This does not mean that every contributor or presenter hates Islam and Muslims or that GB News does not sometimes publish good commentary – it does, and we give some examples in this report.”

“We believe there is an endemic problem with GB News’ coverage of Islam and Muslims. “

Other findings include

The report’s other findings allege:

• Islamophobia has been referenced on GB News for 60% of all mentions when compared with BBC News and Sky News, but most of the time designed to “rubbish the concept of Islamophobia.”
• During the summer riots, GB News accounted for 62% of all clips on UK news channels that associated Muslims with the riots and “repeatedly framed Muslims as perpetrators rather than victims of violence, downplaying attacks on mosques and Muslim communities, contributing to a biased narrative. “
• “GB News repeatedly casts suspicion on the motives of Muslims in civic spaces and regurgitates tropes found in far-right circles. Muslims are cast under the lens of the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory.”
• “Claims of a ‘two-tier society’, ‘two-tier judiciary’, ‘education system’, ‘health system’ and ‘policing’ where Muslims are allegedly afforded special privileges are made frequently.”
• “The channel regularly misleads the audience about Muslims, from outright lies to misrepresented and uncontextualized claims about so-called ‘grooming gangs’, Sharia Law, mosques as incubators of extremism and cultural difference, cherry picking stories and evidence.”

The report says GB News’ reporting “risks inciting violence and discrimination against Muslim communities” and may have contributed to the toxic atmosphere surrounding last summer’s riots. 

The report concludes that the channel “rarely features Muslim perspectives”, often “fails to challenge Islamophobic remarks”, and portrays Muslims as a “Trojan horse” seeking to undermine British values. 

Ofcom criticised

The report is damning about the regulator Ofcom and how it treats GB News. 

“The channel repeatedly propagates Islamophobic tropes, and it is hard to find many cases of Islam or Muslims being discussed without an Islamophobic trope being called upon,” says the report. 

“Rather than providing an unbiased perspective or challenging guests on racism, as one would expect from presenters at an Ofcom regulated broadcaster, hosts often indulge in diatribes and monologues dismissing Islamophobia or then blaming Muslims for Islamophobia.”

“We are therefore looking at Ofcom. The regulator needs to either stop the pretence that it is actually regulating the channel and enforcing impartiality, or do its job and regulate the channel. The evidence is overwhelming – now we need action.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “All regulated broadcasters must comply with our broadcasting rules. We enforce these rules fairly and proportionately, acting independently and impartially at all times. 

“We have found GB News in breach of our rules 12 times, and recently imposed a £100,000 financial penalty on GB News for breaking due impartiality rules.”

Stereotyping and stigmatisation of British Muslims

Commenting on the report’s findings, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi says: “The consistent stereotyping and stigmatisation of British Muslim communities as the “enemy” or the “problem” by a platform with millions of viewers is deliberate, dangerous and has real life consequences.

“Seeing the impact of far-right radicalisation with the alarming year-on-year rise in anti-Muslim hatred, culminating in this summer’s riots where mosques and Muslim communities were openly targeted, should have been a wakeup call for all. 

“It is imperative that both the regulator and the government take decisive action to ensure broadcasting platforms are not used to fuel hatred and extremism that plays out as violent disorder on the streets of Britain.” 

Former ITN Executive and Ofcom Regulator, Stewart Purvis says: “The broadcasting regulator rightly does not attempt to tell news channels which stories to cover. But the Centre for Media Monitoring’s report creates a clear challenge to Ofcom: has its deregulated model for broadcast news created an unintended consequence? 

“Can a broadcaster be allowed to try to build its audience and political influence by a consistently negative portrayal of an ethnic community?” 

The Director of the Centre for Media Monitoring, Rizwana Hamid, said: “Prior to GB News entering the British media landscape most of our attention was focused on the misrepresentation of Muslims and Islam in print and online publications given that Ofcom’s broadcast regulations were always more robust than the press regulator IPSO.

“However, the volume of anti-Muslim hate on GB News and Ofcom’s reluctance to regulate its harmful content has meant that politicians and commentators have been give carte blanche to malign Muslims and Islam in a way that no other channel does. A robust regulator should demand that the channel performs according to long-established codes for broadcasters and enforce impartiality regulations.”

Although an un-bylined article on the GB News website did not identify specific inaccuracies, a GB News spokesman said: “This inaccurate and defamatory report is nothing more than a cynical, self-serving attempt to silence free speech.

“It proves exactly why a news organisation like GB News needs to exist and why it is succeeding.

“We are concerned that at no point did this project of the Muslim Council of Britain contact GB News or its presenters to allow them to respond to these highly defamatory allegations.”