Steve Hewlett, writing in today's MediaGuardian section, defends Channel 4's Dispatches documentary Undercover Mosque against the criticism of misleading editing levelled at it last week by west Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Channel 4 itself has already mounted a robust defence of the programme.
Today, Hewlett says:
"Had anyone asked the police for specific examples to justify their grand claim, as I did, they would have been left wanting. No further particulars are available apparently, and none have been given to Channel 4 or Ofcom.
"In fact, if the police press statement and the letters sent by them to Ofcom and Channel 4 (from the assistant chief constable responsible for "Security and Cohesion") are read more closely, it is pretty clear that the police are primarily concerned with community relations.
"They go out of their way to emphasise the point that they took investigating the actions of the programme makers - allegedly inciting racial hatred - just as seriously as investigating the extreme and illiberal comments of the preachers featured in the film. The local MP thinks the real story is why the police and CPS ducked the issue of prosecuting the extremists, and that the attack on the programme makers is just a smokescreen.
"...But back in TV land, surely it is time for some sense of perspective. Editing decisions can always be questioned, but the assumption that the programme makers must have behaved unethically just because the police and the CPS - who so clearly have their own agenda - say they have, is dangerous and wrong."
