Birmingham Post: Doubt over police motives for TV programme probe

The motives behind West Midlands Police's decision to investigate a Channel 4 documentary for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in Birmingham were questioned last night after the force admitted it did not receive a single formal complaint about the programme.

The police considered prosecuting makers of the Dispatches episode Undercover Mosque, which purported to show an imam at the Green Lane Mosque in Small Heath urging homosexuals to be killed and speakers apparently praising suicide bombers.

The mosque was the subject of a spate of vandalism after it was screened.

But the police operation, which cost £14,000 excluding staff time, has been criticised by the TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group which said it strongly suspected political considerations lay behind the decision to launch an inquiry.

West Midlands Police admitted yesterday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act question from the TPA, that none of the 82 letters and emails it had received "expressing concern" over the contents of the programme met the criteria set out by the Police Reform Act 2000 which defines a complaint.

Attempts to take further action against Channel 4 were dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the broadcaster for stirring racial hatred.

After studying 56 hours of footage, the CPS concluded the show "completely distorted" what the speakers at the mosque had actually said, but there was insufficient evidence to take any action. The results of a police complaint to broadcasting regulator Ofcom are still awaited.

TaxPayers' Alliance spokesman Corin Taylor said: " The police have followed a political agenda to pursue the makers of a television programme who have every right to freedom of speech."