The Daily Star Sunday has been censured for printing a “significantly misleading” headline suggesting Britain’s mosques were raising funds for terrorist organisations.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation rejected the Star’s argument that the headline “UK mosques give cash for terror” should be read with the rest of the article, which reported claims that fundraising was being carried out by one group in Bradford and not any mosque as an institution.
Ipso said the headline “gave the impression that the newspaper had discovered serious, organised wrongdoing, when that was not the case”.
It is the second time in little more than a week a UK newspaper has been found to have printed a misleading headline about the UK’s Muslim communities, following a recent ruling that a Sun front page headline, “One in five Brit Muslims’ sympathy for jihadis” was also significantly misleading.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant general secretary of the Muslim Council who made the complaint about the Star in a personal capacity, said he hoped the ruling would help people see stories such as the one printed in the Star as “isolated incidents” carried out by “fringe elements”.
“There is growing Islamophobia in the UK today, with more and more people having negative attitudes towards Muslims. In such a climate, it is very important that newspapers are careful in reporting facts accurately,” he said.
“In this case, the newspaper wrongly alleged that UK mosques were fundraising for terror without any evidence. Such sensationalism creates real damage as it reinforces an unfounded assumption that mosques across the UK are a problem in our society.”
Ipso was criticised for not ordering the Sun to print its correction on the front page, instead saying it must be further forward than page 5. The Star’s correction on Sunday appeared on page 2 in its corrections and clarifications column.
The regulator has only recently begun ruling against newspapers for misleading headlines that do not match the text of an article.
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