A letter has been sent the ‘The Guardian’ by supporters of ‘The Alternative Leveson Inquiry’, calling for independent, credible assessors to look into the way the Muslim community is portrayed in the media.
The letter was signed by 58 politicians, Muslim journalists, lawyers, academics, Muslim community leaders, and by Dr Alana Lentin, an academic from the University of Sussex.
The letter claims that academic studies have shown British media to have a “worrying and disproportionate trend towards negative, distorted and even fabricated reports in media coverage of the Muslim community”.
Campaigners argue that the Leveson inquiry has so far “failed to address unfair media coverage” of cases relating to Muslims and Islam, instead focusing on the impact of phone hacking on celebrities.
The letter to The Guardian points to a survey conducted by the ComRes polling organisation last year that suggested that a third of Britons believed the media was responsible for creating the atmosphere of Islamophobic.
Professor Lentin said that a public enquiry: “would be a really good opportunity to look at the way the media has participated in creating a campaign against Muslims in this country and, indeed, globally”.