Following today's ruling, the
broadcaster called the police's actions "perverse" and said they had,
in some people's eyes, given "legitimacy to people preaching a message
of hate".
Ofcom said: "Undercover Mosque was a legitimate
investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest. Ofcom
found no evidence that the broadcaster had misled the audience or that
the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity.
"On
the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts), Ofcom found
that the broadcaster had accurately represented the material it had
gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context."
The programme featured undercover
recordings from speakers alleged to be homophobic, anti-Semitic, sexist
and condemnatory of non-Muslims.
Excerpts from preachers and
teachers included "Allah created the woman deficient" and "by the age
of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force her (young girls) to
wear hijab and if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her".
Other
statements included "take that homosexual and throw him off the
mountain" and "whoever changes his religion from Al Islam to anything
else - kill him in the Islamic state".
Police initially
launched an investigation into whether criminal offences had been
committed at the mosques and other organisations featured in the
programme.
They then said that it considered offences may have
been committed by those involved in the production and broadcast of the
programme, specifically in stirring up racial hatred.
After
the Crown Prosecution Service advised that the prospect of conviction
was unlikely, police referred Undercover Mosque to Ofcom, complaining
that intense editing had misrepresented those featured in the
programme.
Ofcom also rejected
the 364 viewers' complaints it received after the programme was
broadcast, which it said appeared to be part of a campaign.
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