UK Muslim Watchdog Accused of Trying To Silence Free Press
8th July 2025
A Muslim media watchdog is accused of trying to silence legitimate journalism by filing politically driven and baseless complaints against media content it disagrees with.
Andrew Gilligan and Dr Damon Perry outline their findings in a new report, Bad Faith Actor: A study of the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), which can be downloaded here. The CfMM claims that UK media—especially newspapers—are a major driver of “Islamophobia.” But the authors point out that of the many complaints CfMM has submitted to the presswatchdog IPSO, only one has ever resulted in a correction.
The CfMM, which is linked to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), has made several controversial complaints, such as:
- Arguing it was “misleading” to describe ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi (“Jihadi John”) as a terrorist, since he hadn’t been formally convicted;
- Including factual coverage of Islamist terror attacks in its statistic claiming 60% of media output is “Islamophobic”;
- Targeting GB News and journalist Charlie Peters for reporting accurately on the ethnic background of grooming gang members;
- Objecting to fictional TV portrayals of Muslim characters who drink, reject the hijab, or are gay.