Article 1
Headline: 'Sacked' over sexy dress
Section: News
Written by: ?
Page: 9
Outline: This story is about Fata Lemes, a waitress who claims that she was sacked from her job because she refused to wear a revealing dress.
The article describes Ms Leme as "A Muslim cocktail waitress..." yet the article doesn't actually state that Ms Lemes' refusal was bacause of religious beliefs. This description of Ms Lemes are the actual opening words of the article.
Reading the story one realises that Ms Lemes thought that management at the bar "...allowed staff to be treated as prostitutes".
This shows that the main driver for Ms Lemes' refusal appears to have been on grounds of gender i.e. the desire not to be seen as a sex object by customers at the bar. With that in mind the mention of Ms Lemes' religious beliefs actually has nothing to do with the story and only seeks to create a connection in the readers minds. A connection which doesn't exist, even in the article itself.
For highlighting Ms Lemes' faith unnecessarilly this article is marked as negative.
Article Verdict: Negative
Article 2
Headline: Betting boss loses £200m over US ban
Section: News
Written by: Miles Erwin
Page: 22
Article Verdict: N/A
Article 3
Headline: Blinded by their beliefs?
Section: Metro Mail
Written by: Reader letters
Page: 40
Article Verdict: N/A
The article describes Ms Leme as "A Muslim cocktail waitress..." yet the article doesn't actually state that Ms Lemes' refusal was bacause of religious beliefs. This description of Ms Lemes are the actual opening words of the article.
Reading the story one realises that Ms Lemes thought that management at the bar "...allowed staff to be treated as prostitutes".
This shows that the main driver for Ms Lemes' refusal appears to have been on grounds of gender i.e. the desire not to be seen as a sex object by customers at the bar. With that in mind the mention of Ms Lemes' religious beliefs actually has nothing to do with the story and only seeks to create a connection in the readers minds. A connection which doesn't exist, even in the article itself.
For highlighting Ms Lemes' faith unnecessarilly this article is marked as negative.
Article Verdict: Negative
Article 2
Headline: Betting boss loses £200m over US ban
Section: News
Written by: Miles Erwin
Page: 22
Outline: This story isn't about Islam or Muslims but I have included it as it's written by Miles Erwin for the Metro.
The story is about the boss of a gambling company falling foul of US internet gambling rules. The man in question is Anurag Dikshit.
I have previously highlighted stories involving members of minority communities and commented that in most cases where Muslims aren't involved the ethnic background of the subjects is left out as is the case with this particular story. This is how it should be however some journalists do sometimes point out that a person in a story is a Muslim when there is usually no relevance to the article.
Miles Erwin previously wrote about 2 students who received racist jokes from 118 118. In that story he referred to "A Muslim student". In that particular story it would have been more appropriate to describe the man as an Asian student because the racist jokes were targeted at the Asian Community bur Erwin chose to use the term Muslim.
It's interesting to note that Erwin fails to mention anything about the ethnic background of Mr Anurag Dikshit, he doesn't use any words like "Hindu Businessman" or "Asian millionnaire" etc.
No rating will be given to this story however Erwin's future reporting involving ethnic minorities will be closely watched to see whether he only chooses to highlight Muslim individuals in his articles.
The story is about the boss of a gambling company falling foul of US internet gambling rules. The man in question is Anurag Dikshit.
I have previously highlighted stories involving members of minority communities and commented that in most cases where Muslims aren't involved the ethnic background of the subjects is left out as is the case with this particular story. This is how it should be however some journalists do sometimes point out that a person in a story is a Muslim when there is usually no relevance to the article.
Miles Erwin previously wrote about 2 students who received racist jokes from 118 118. In that story he referred to "A Muslim student". In that particular story it would have been more appropriate to describe the man as an Asian student because the racist jokes were targeted at the Asian Community bur Erwin chose to use the term Muslim.
It's interesting to note that Erwin fails to mention anything about the ethnic background of Mr Anurag Dikshit, he doesn't use any words like "Hindu Businessman" or "Asian millionnaire" etc.
No rating will be given to this story however Erwin's future reporting involving ethnic minorities will be closely watched to see whether he only chooses to highlight Muslim individuals in his articles.
Article Verdict: N/A
Article 3
Headline: Blinded by their beliefs?
Section: Metro Mail
Written by: Reader letters
Page: 40
Outline: On Tuesday the Metro featured a story about a blind man who was refused entry into an Indian restaurant because the owners objected to his guide dog on religious grounds.
I gave the article a negative rating as it portrayed a negative view of Muslims and here's the evidence to support that.
Feedback from the 2 readers is presented and both are negative against Islam and mention that too much has been compromised to appease religious groups.
I will repeat once again that the owners of the Indian restaurant shouldn't have treated Mr Elder-Brown the way they did but the Metro's rather short article (less than 100 words) generalised the actions of the restaurant owners leaving people thinking that perhaps all Muslims would treat blind people and their guide dogs this way.
The very short Metro article was enough to provoke a negative response from at least 2 people, who know how many more complained.
Whilst this isn't an article I've brought this up because it shows the power of media and the way they report about Muslims.
I gave the article a negative rating as it portrayed a negative view of Muslims and here's the evidence to support that.
Feedback from the 2 readers is presented and both are negative against Islam and mention that too much has been compromised to appease religious groups.
I will repeat once again that the owners of the Indian restaurant shouldn't have treated Mr Elder-Brown the way they did but the Metro's rather short article (less than 100 words) generalised the actions of the restaurant owners leaving people thinking that perhaps all Muslims would treat blind people and their guide dogs this way.
The very short Metro article was enough to provoke a negative response from at least 2 people, who know how many more complained.
Whilst this isn't an article I've brought this up because it shows the power of media and the way they report about Muslims.
Article Verdict: N/A
