These hostile stories about Muslims and immigrants in the right-wing newspapers were criticised at the time, but unfortunately, the reprimand did little to permanently eliminate such inflammatory headlines.

The wave of far-right violence across the UK has dominated the headlines all week. On August 5, the Daily Mail featured a photo of Tommy Robinson on holiday in Cyprus, with a headline accusing him of “stoking riots from his sunbed,” referencing over a hundred posts Robinson allegedly made online over the weekend.

This type of coverage has been criticised, deemed hypocritical given these newspapers’ history of sowing division and hatred. Online, images of past anti-migrant frontpages have resurfaced, including inflammatory claims by the Daily Express such as“Migrants rob young people of jobs” and “Every 4 Minutes a Migrant is Arrested in Britain.”

Hasan Patel, a strategic communications expert and former journalist, criticised the Daily Mail’s “Summer of Discontent” frontpage. He argued that the paper has significantly contributed to the climate of hate that fuelled the recent riots. “You have the @DailyMailUK acting like the #FarRight #FarageRiots was due to the Labour government, yet they as a media under Dacre have a lot to answer for in the way they have whipped up hate,” Patel wrote on X.

Others shared similar sentiments, suggesting that the Daily Mail and other right-wing media outlets bear significant responsibility for the current unrest. Comments ranged from accusing the media of spreading hatred and racism to asserting that these newspapers are among the primary culprits for the violence and fatalities.

Here are some of the worst examples of hostile Muslim and immigrant rhetoric promoted by the right-wing press that faced reprimand at the time, yet, unfortunately, did little to eradicate such derogatory and divisive headlines permanently.

Daily Mail, Telegraph and Sun’s ‘4,000 foreign criminals’ headlines in 2013

In 2013, the Daily Mail led with a story headlined “4,000 foreign criminals including murdered and rapists we can’t throw out… and, yes, you can blame human rights again.’ The article claimed that nearly 4,000 foreign murderers, rapists, and other criminals were roaming the streets, free to commit new crimes. 

The Sun and Telegraph opted for the same divisive angle, headlining: “Four thousand foreign cons dodge boot and “Almost 4,000 foreign criminals live freely in UK” respectively.

However, analysis of the claims by fact-checkers Full Fact concluded that while there were just under 4,000 foreign national offenders living in the community subject to deportation, there was no evidence as to how many of these were guilty of the offences, as was suggested.

“This doesn’t sit well with the Mail’s headline suggesting these are substantially murderers, rapists and those convicted of other serious crimes,” wrote Full Fact.

The Sun’s misleading information about Muslims, 2016

In 2016, the Sun was reprimanded for publishing misleading information in November 2015 about British Muslims, which the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) deemed significantly misleading. The article was based on a poll carried out after the Paris terror attacks and said: “nearly one in five British Muslims has some sympathy with those who had fled the UK to fight for IS in Syria.”

Ipso ruled that the article breached the accuracy clause of its editors’ code and that the paper’s presentation of the poll had been “significantly misleading.”

An Ipso spokesman had said: “The newspaper had provided various interpretations of the poll result which conflated important distinctions between those travelling to Syria and those already fighting in Syria; between “sympathy” for these individuals and “support” for their actions; and between individuals attracted by the ideology of IS, and the ideology of IS itself.”

Daily Express editor admits past headlines contributed to ‘Islamophobic sentiment,’ 2018

Similarly, in 2018, the Daily Express’s editor admitted that past headlines had contributed to an “Islamophobic sentiment,” during a Home Affairs Committee inquiry. Editor-in-chief Gary Jones was one of a number of senior journalists who faced a grilling by the Committee into the treatment of people from minority groups by the press. Jones expressed discomfort with past headlines and acknowledged the newspaper’s role in advancing Islamophobia.

“Each and every editor has a responsibility for every single word that is published in the newspaper and yes, cumulatively, some of the headlines that have appeared in the past have created an Islamophobic sentiment, which I find uncomfortable,” he told the committee.

“I’ve gone through a lot of former Express front pages and I have felt very uncomfortable looking at them. Individually they may not present specific issues. There have been accuracy issues on some of them and some of them are just downright offensive.”

Daily Mail criticised by the Muslim Council of Britain, 2022

The Daily Mail faced further criticism in 2022 from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which accused the newspaper of exacerbating hatred by attacking Conservative leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt for meeting the MCB’s secretary general, Zara Mohammed. The MCB accused the paper of peddling negative stereotypes against Muslims.

Given the persistent pattern of sensationalist and divisive reporting by right-wing newspapers, it’s no surprise that many are criticising these media outlet for their role in escalating tensions in Britain. As the UK contends with the aftermath of the recent riots, a critical question remains: Will these media outlets ever be held accountable for their role in fuelling division and hatred?

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