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Updated 3.30pm
THE REPORTER WHO was criticised by a former Sun editor for wearing a hijab while presenting the Channel 4 news has said his words “won’t stop me from doing my job”.
The Sun came under fire over a column by its former editor Kelvin MacKenzie which questioned why Fatima Manji was allowed present a news report on the Nice terror attacks while wearing a hijab.
Today, Manji wrote in the Liverpool Echo about how MacKenzie’s column won’t prevent her from doing her work.
“I’m not expecting an apology from him any time soon,” she said, after detailing how it took him 23 years to apologise for the Sun’s coverage of the HIllsborough tragedy.
She said she was grief-stricken by the massacre in Nice.
“I will not be deterred in this mission by the efforts of those who find the presence of Muslims in British cultural life offensive,” said Manji.
She accused MacKenzie of trying to smear 1.6 billion Muslims “in suggesting they are inherently violent” and smearing her by suggesting she would “sympathise with a terrorist”. Her full response can be read here.
Hundreds of complaints have been made to the UK press regulator over the column:
MacKenzie’s column was also tweeted out by the newspaper using a photograph of Manji, but this tweet was later deleted.
MacKenzie asked in his column if Manji’s appearance on the Channel 4 news to announce the Nice terror attacks was “appropriate… when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim”.
Was it done to stick one in the eye of the ordinary viewer who looks at the hijab as a sign of the slavery of Muslim women by a male- dominated and clearly violent religion?
MacKenzie said he didn’t “blame” Fatima Manji and said that the people of Nice and France “would view a foreign reporter wearing a hijab in these tense times as massively provocative”.
The Telegraph says that the UK press regulator, Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), has received more than 300 complaints about MacKenzie’s column.
In a statement, Channel 4 said that it was “wrong to suggest that a qualified journalist should be barred from reporting on a particular story or present on a specific day because of their faith”.
The channel described MacKenzie’s comments as “offensive, completely unacceptable, and arguably tantamount to inciting religious and even racial hatred”.
The National Union of Journalists condemned MacKenzie’s column, with NUJ secretary Michelle Stanistreet saying:
To suggest that a journalist is incapable of reporting on a terrorist outrage because of the colour of her skin, her religion or the clothes that she wears says all you need to know about the contemptible views of Kelvin MacKenzie. His feigned moral outrage is the language of racial hatred and bigotry, and sadly just the latest incoherent ramblings of a pundit who should have been put out to pasture a long time ago. Journalism in the UK needs more diversity, not less.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi shared a letter on Twitter which she sent to the editor the Sun, where she criticised the “ignorant reporting and pieces that perpetuate hate”.
Writing in The Guardian, media commentator Roy Greenslade said that:
I think MacKenzie was wrong to be so critical. On the other hand, and this is likely to be an unpopular view among his detractors (plus those who loathe the Sun), I must defend his (and their) right to air his views. He is, after all, hired to be a controversialist.
While the Sun has not publicly responded to the uproar, it did publish a column by Muslim writer Anila Baig last night, where she praised Manji for wearing a headscarf on television.
The Sun came in for major criticism online for MacKenzie’s column – not least because in October of last year, it used a hijab on its front cover.
By picturing a woman wearing a hijab made of the Union flag, the newspaper was “urg[ing] Brits of all faiths to stand up to extremists”, as it said itself.
In contrast, MacKenzie’s column posited the wearing of a hijab as inflammatory and offensive to France in the wake of terror attacks.
The hijab went from being used as a symbol of peace and unity on the Sun’s front cover to a symbol of division and unrest in MacKenzie’s column.
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RTE 1 Good evening and here is the news. Only six or seven people were shot in Dublin this evening but sources say it has nothing to do with the main gangs that are shooting each other. As soon as the smoke clears we will bring you further updates!
You forgot the reassuring soundbite full of jargon from francis the sycophantic social worker..
Seems like more of a punishment shooting than anything else 3 in the arm one in the leg.
Or the other way round lol
punishment? you think he was a bold boy?
Either that or the shooter has a very bad aim . Maybe it was his first time …
they are blooding new talent these days
Assel
Do you know know what a punishment shooting means?
Dublin 2016 = lawless to the point where lawlessness has now become normalized.
Take a bow Frances, Acting Minister for Chaos and Lawlessness.
are you threatening me Nick?
LOL……
@Assel, If you are going to troll the Journal, at least learn to read and write at a reasonable standard of English. God Bless you, Father Stack
Brian…give poor francis a break…she knows that behind every assassin..every killer,every thug,gunman,hitman,psychopath,drug dealer…lies a vulnerable individual.
Well if it is a so-called punishment shooting, carried out in Clondalkin, then it would probably the CIRA. And that would mean that so-called dissidents were out on the streets shooting people, and given all the connotations of the Kinihan-Hutch feud, any such shooting should be regarded as related.
Leave my name out of this please
Ironically in Frances’ constituency. Everyone was all over it during the election. A baby almost killed in Finglas. Cowards gunning down an innocent man in town, mistaken identity… And last week no less than 2 shootings in the same night and now this.
The Juan Kerr’s in government should hang their heads in shame. They only gave a a fook about being re-elected
Where’s the armed Garda patrol and checkpoints now? I didn’t see a single checkpoint at all this bank holiday. Couldn’t do (say) enough a few weeks back
I didn’t vote for you Frances. Your a disgrace, letting the criminals shoot the place out of it
Ah poor francis…she totally wants to conduct an intervention with these vulnerable groups of armed men and young people…perhaps a family welfare conference or two…perhaps approach the “issue” from a strenghts based perspective with a view to a wrap around care package for the most vulnerable gang members and targetted support – bespoke of course – for the remainder.Gardai operating in the area will of course wear tracksuits…to do otherwise may offend the the vulnerable gang members sensetivities and possibly upset them.
You forgot about the Nike trainers , dead giveaway if the Gardai are not wearing them !
Ah Sis…easy knowing im not from a social work background…duffer and armani tracksuits i know about…didnt think of the de rigeur Nike’s…thankfully francis is “across this” and will have vouchers to hand…
Bro , you’re right I’m sure she’ll have every angle covered … she’s usually on top of things .
Shocking so two gangs killing each other and now random shootings time for a zero tolerance policy on organised crime and use of guns in crime more eru on streets open back up the stations and get more gaurds on the beat enough is enough
we need a story about Halawa hurry up …. forget this Irish stuff make us feel guilty.
Shooting in Dublin !!
As long as it isn’t in Dartry or Milltown where the Defence barristers and Judges live then there is no need to worry.
no shooting in dublin 6 so do you think people get shot for no apparent reason at all?
Worse it’s getting instead of better!
Thanks Yoda.
Whatever he did it almost cost him an arm and a leg.
Elmo must be back again
Francis is a male and Frances is a female for all the people who seem to get mixed up, only saying.
Hope he wasn’t a Leicester City fan
Chat shit get banged!
Shit shot, bang bang
Victim known by the authorities???
Think he was a spurs fan.
gang bang …..
here
have your say