The Centre for Media Monitoring, which is housed at the Muslim Council for Britain, recently published a report which looks at the media reporting of terrorism.

The researchers compared the reporting of terrorist attacks committed by Muslims and those by far-right activists. They found that in the period 2015-2019: ‘over half (51%) of individual online news pieces in 31 of the mainstream British news websites, magazines and newswires which mention the term terror, terrorism, terrorist(s) one or more times, also mention Muslim(s) and/or Islam, Islamic, Islamism or Islamist in the same piece. The equivalent total for far-right, white supremacist, right wing and neo-Nazi terrorist(s) is 6%’. There is clearly a disparity in the reporting of terrorist attacks.

In general, there was a greater willingness to attribute terrorist attacks to Muslims rather than far-right activists. However, the analysis found that standards of reporting began to improve in 2019. The detailed and robust report provides clear discrepancies in reporting of terrorist attacks by Muslims and far-right activists and this can clearly have an impact on community relations.

However this 103 page report goes a long way to show that almost twenty years after 9/11 the media can still improve its reporting of such attacks so as to not further exacerbate tensions.  The report ends with eleven recommendations which encourage ensuring accuracy in reporting (especially around establishing the facts of the case) and avoiding linking Islamic normative practices with terrorism.

Source: MuslimView