Ofcom has today imposed a £40,000 financial penalty on Islam Channel Ltd for serious and repeated breaches of our broadcasting rules.
Islam Channel is an English-language satellite TV station airing religious instruction, current affairs, documentaries and entertainment programmes from an Islamic perspective.
Our investigation found The Andinia Plan, a one-hour documentary that examined a conspiracy theory which originated in a neo-Nazi publication, amounted to hate speech against Jewish people. This antisemitic content was also highly offensive and not sufficiently justified by the context.
We concluded that these were serious and repeated breaches of our rules which warranted the imposition of the following statutory sanctions: a financial penalty, to be paid by Islam Channel Ltd to HM Paymaster General; a direction not to repeat the programme; and a direction to broadcast a statement of our findings on a date and in a form to be determined by Ofcom.
