19 January 2017

The man correcting stories about Muslims

When one newspaper reported last year that "enclaves of Islam see UK as 75% Muslim" last year, Miqdaad Versi's instinct was to challenge it. He believes errors in the reporting of Muslims have become all too common, and has made it his mission to fight for corrections.

Miqdaad Versi sits in front of a rather geeky-looking spreadsheet at the offices of the Muslim Council of Britain in east London.

He is the organisation's assistant secretary general, but the task in front of him is a personal project.

The spreadsheet has on it every story published concerning Muslims and Islam that day in the British media - and he is going through them looking for inaccuracies.

If he finds one, he will put in a complaint or a request for a correction with the news organisation, the press regulator Ipso, or both.

Mr Versi has been doing this thoroughly since November, and before that on a more casual basis. He has so far complained more than 50 times, and the results are visible. [BBC] Read more