The Channel 4 News presenter Fatima Manji has complained to the press watchdog over comments made by Kelvin MacKenzie in his column for the Sun questioning her suitability to co-present the programme wearing a hijab during the Nice attack.
MacKenzie caused controversy when he wrote in the Sun on Monday: "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." He said he could "hardly believe my eyes" when Manji appeared onscreen during the Channel 4 News programme on 15 July. "Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim?"
He has since defended the remarks as "reasonable".
But the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) said it received more than 2,000 complaints over the remarks, and the programme's editor, Ben de Pear, said: "Yesterday, Channel 4 News correspondent Fatima Manji made an official complaint to Ipso. ITN believes the article was in breach of a number of provisions of the Editor's Code, in particular discrimination, harassment by intimidation and inaccuracy."
He added that he "cannot accept ... an employee being singled out on the basis of her religion [and] subject to act of religious discrimination".
In his latest column today, MacKenzie blamed the "Twerperati" for "accusing me of Islamaphobia (yawn! yawn!)" and repeated the controversial point. He said: "All I did was ask a simple question, 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 went on: "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?"
The National Union of Journalists general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, said: "To suggest that a journalist is incapable of reporting on a terrorist outrage because of the colour of her skin, her religion or the clothes that she wears says all you need to know about the contemptible views of Kelvin MacKenzie."
The Sun has said it is making "no comment" on the matter. The tabloid deleted a tweet promoting the column on Monday and later printed a separate article for online only which said that the "fact that Fatima can present a news bulletin and also wears a headscarf shows how great Britain is".
