A Fox News programme which said Birmingham was a city “where non-Muslims just simply don’t go” breached broadcasting regulations and should have been corrected sooner, media regulator Ofcom has ruled.
The comments were made in an edition of the Justice with Judge Jeanine [Pirro] show about Islamic extremism four days after the attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Four people complained to Ofcom after the broadcast on 11 January this year, saying the assertions were misleading and potentially offensive.
It also suggested there were “no-go zones” in Paris which French police were unwilling to enter and where sharia law was imposed.
Ofcom said the broadcast was “materially misleading and had the potential to cause harm and offence to viewers” at a time of heightened sensitivity following the Hebdo attack.
It added it was “concerned that the licensee [Fox News] had not acted sooner to correct the statements or to broadcast an apology”.
One of the programme’s guests, Steve Emerson, said: “So in Britain there are not just ‘no-go zones’ there are actually cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in.
"[In parts] of London there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who doesn’t dress according to Muslim religious attire.”
Earlier Pirro asked another guest, Nolan Peterson: “There are areas called ‘no-go zones’ where apparently the French police will not go [and] Sharia laws [are] imposed. These are dangerous areas in the ghetto [Peterson indicated his agreement]. What can you tell us about those?”
Peterson replied: “There are basically portions of the banlieues, which are the French ghettos that the French authorities have abandoned. They don’t provide an ambulance service, they don’t provide police service”.
Fox News carried two apologies seven days after the initial broadcast admitting to a “serious factual error” that it “wrongly let stand unchallenged and uncorrected”.
It told Ofcom that there was “always a risk involved when inviting guests to a live programme”.
The regulator, in its ruling published on Monday, said the programme was “clearly misleading” and said it was “particularly concerned about the context in which these statements were made at a time of heightened sensitivity in the wake of the Hebdo attack”.
Fox News has previously been found in breach by Ofcom, including a broadcast of a live car chase in 2013.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Fox News’ Justice with Jeanine Pirro was materially misleading and could have caused harm and offence to its viewers. Fox News broadcast two subsequent apologies but this was a serious breach for a current affairs programme.”