Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie has defended as “reasonable” his criticism of Channel 4 News for fronting a report on the Nice truck attack with a journalist wearing a hijab.



MacKenzie prompted more than 2,000 complaints to the press regulator after he used his Sun column on Monday to question whether it was “appropriate” for journalist Fatima Manji to be on camera “when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim”.

Channel 4 News said on Friday that Manji and the programme’s producer, ITN, had made an official complaint to press regulator Ipso.

The programme’s editor, Ben de Pear, said MacKenzie’s column breached rules on intimidation, harassment and inaccuracy. He said he “cannot accept ... an employee being singled out on the basis of her religion [and] subject to act of religious discrimination”.

Writing in the Sun on Monday, MacKenzie said: “With all the major terrorist outrages in the world currently being carried out by Muslims, I think the rest of us are reasonably entitled to have concerns about what is beating in their religious hearts. Who is in the studio representing our fears? Nobody.”



Manji accused MacKenzie of trying to “intimidate Muslims out of public life” and Channel 4 News described his comments as “offensive, completely unacceptable, and arguably tantamount to inciting religious and even racial hatred”.

But returning to the issue in his latest column in the Sun on Friday, MacKenzie blamed the “Twerperati” for “accusing me of Islamaphobia (yawn! yawn!)”.

“All I did was ask a simple question,” he wrote. “Was it appropriate for a hijab-wearing presenter to front the Channel 4 News on the night they were covering the Nice massacre by a Muslim?

“A reasonable inquiry you would have thought with the sensitivities that currently exist in this nation and the rest of Europe. Then the Twerperati got involved and it became a national debate with record number of complaints to the press regulator Ipso.”

He said he was “not hostile” to Manji but said editor Ben de Pear had “made an error by putting her on air”.

“So I have another simple question, this time for the TV regulator Ofcom,” added MacKenzie.

“Should presenters be allowed to wear artefacts which advertise their religion? If, for instance, one of the regular presenters was a Christian (I’m joking since at C4 you wouldn’t get an interview) would they be allowed to wear a huge cross outside of their shirt or blouse to the same prominence as a hijab?”

Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear, in a statement issued on Friday, said the article breached a number of provisions in Ipso’s editor’s code, “in particular discrimination, harassment by intimidation and inaccuracy”.

ITN chief executive John Hardie has also complained to Ipso about the article.

“A further complaint was also made by ITN chief executive John Hardie which fully supports and endorses the grounds and reasoning of Fatima’s complaint,” said de Pear.

“ITN accepts and understands that our reporters and presenters are in the public eye and can expect criticism and comment from many quarters, including newspaper columnists.

“What it cannot accept is an employee being singled out on the basis of her religion. We are not going to simply stand by when an employee is subject to act of religious discrimination.”