Media Guardian: Race & Religion Article #3

(Highlighted parts are in blue)

Range of Muslim views not represented in media, says Dorothy Byrne

Oliver Luft in Valencia

MediaGuardian, Thursday 20 November 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/20/raceandreligion-channel4

Broadcasters fail to fully represent the range of Muslim voices in Britain, the head of Channel 4 news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, said today.

Byrne told the News Xchange 2008 conference in Valencia that there was a problem with the media making sweeping generalisations about Islam, which she said was "not at all helpful".

Addressing a session looking at the representation of Islam in the news media, Byrne told delegates the findings of a report her network commissioned on the attitudes of British Muslims contrasted with their representation on UK TV news.

"I think there is a strong tendency for broadcasters to go and interview young men outside mosques to find out what Muslims think. In our survey, we found that 48% of British Muslims do not actually attend mosques. Therefore you wouldn't get an accurate picture of what people think," she said.

"They [British broadcasters] have a tendency to go to just one or two organisations for comment ... one is the Muslim Council of Britain. In our survey ,when we asked Muslims who they thought represented them only 11% of British Muslims thought the Muslim Council of Britain represented them, compared with 19% of people who thought their member of parliament represented them. I think we have got to be very thoughtful and careful," she added.

Byrne said that the research highlighted how little the public, and some Muslims themselves, knew about the diversity of Islam in Britain.

As a result, she said, Channel 4 had decided to address very specific issues when making programmes about Islam to avoid generalisations.

"The problem in the media is when people make sweeping generalisations, I think that's just not helpful at all," Byrne added.

"The other thing is that we should not be afraid to tell the truth, we don't need to be politically correct, I don't think it helps anybody to be politically correct."