A newsreader criticised by a former national newspaper editor for wearing the hijab while reporting on the Nice attack has hit back in an exclusive piece for a regional daily.
Writing for the Liverpool Echo in what the newspaper billed as a ‘world exclusive’ today, Channel 4 journalist Fatima Manji claimed former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie was trying to force Muslims out of public life.
Kelvin had previously questioned in a column for his former paper whether it was “appropriate” for her to cover Thursday’s tragedy, adding he could “hardly believe my eyes” at seeing her wearing the traditional headscarf on screen.
The former Sun editor has history with the Echo, having long refused to apologise for running the infamous headline ‘The Truth’ following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster despite the Trinity Mirror-owned daily’s repeated calls for him to do so.
In her piece for the Echo, Fatima wrote: “It would be easy to dismiss Kelvin MacKenzie as an embarrassing, and serially embarrassed, relic of a bygone era in British journalism.
“After all, this is the man who slurred survivors of one of our most tragic national atrocities of recent decades. It took him 23 years to apologise and four more to claim he was ‘caught up’ in a government conspiracy to tarnish Hillsborough victims, only after being confronted by brave campaigners and responsible journalists, including my Channel 4 News colleague Alex Thomson and the tireless team at the Liverpool Echo. So I’m not expecting an apology from him any time soon.
“The Sun, you will recall, is the newspaper that appears at ease with its columnists describing refugees dying at sea as ‘cockroaches’. But it’s dangerous to regard Mr MacKenzie and those who echo his Islamophobic sentiments as mere pantomime villains. Their soapbox allows them to spread their ill-informed, irresponsible and malevolent invective to millions of readers.
“Racist and Islamophobic rhetoric has real consequences – lives have been lost and shattered in our own country. I was grief-stricken by the massacre in Nice, particularly by the haunting image of a little girl’s corpse laying next to the doll that was once her companion.”
Fatima further claimed Kelvin was part of a campaign to intimidate Muslims out of public life.
She continued: “Young men and women of all backgrounds regularly ask me for advice on how to forge a career in journalism. Mr MacKenzie’s monologue will frighten many of them into believing that they will be on the end of tabloid attacks merely for daring to do their jobs.”
“The truth is I always pride myself on journalistic integrity regardless of who I’m interviewing or what story I’m covering. That is my mission at Channel 4 News. I will not be deterred in this mission by the efforts of those who find the presence of Muslims in British cultural life offensive.”
Referencing The Sun’s infamous headline, she concluded: “The truth? I confess. I pi**ed on Kelvin MacKenzie’s apparent ambitions to force anyone who looks a little different off our screens, and I’ll keep doing it.”
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“It would be easy to dismiss Kelvin MacKenzie as an embarrassing, and serially embarrassed, relic of a bygone era in British journalism.”
Or odious, obnoxious, arrogant buffoon.
Take your pick.
Well done young lady.
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Exclusive because nobody else is interested.
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Good piece.
People often pass off the comments of people like McKenzie and the vile Katie Hopkins (and indeed Teflon Cameron with his ‘swarms of migrants’ ‘bunch of migrants’ epic banter) but it has a ‘drip drip’ effect.
Auschwitz didn’t start with a train track, it probably started with a ‘light hearted’ jibe about being tight fisted in a Munich coffee shop.
These people are dangerous, they cause mayhem and then they sit back and watch the place burn.
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Frankly, I find it an outrage the Sun would use a journalist who is white and fat and ugly to comment on matters such as this. What is the world coming to? I can hardly believe my eyes every time I see his photo.
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Whenever I see Kelvin MacKenzie’s by-line I recall John Osborne’s (no relative) comment on the long gone Daily Sketch as “written by people who can’t write and read by people who can’t read”.
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Jeff, hackflack and Colin. Bless you all for reminding me why I enjoyed journalism and being in the company of journalists so much.
Colin, I’ll remember that line forever.
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Kelvin Mackenzie is rightly criticised for his incorrect police led story on Hillsborough and now the Liverpool Echo produces a story to ridicule his stand on a Muslim reading the news on the day of the Nice murder… Oh those old fashioned journalists who used to believe in free comment without bias and objective rather than subjective news…. The comments above will have most people wondering the depths we can sink including the patronising one “well said young lady…”
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Going the rounds on social media currently is a cartoon strip defining freedom of speech. It is the freedom not to be jailed or persecuted by the authorities for something you say or write – NOT to be able to say in print or on line the first nasty, racist thing that comes into your head.
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A truly astounding comment from Liz Justice there. ‘police led?’ My word. Kelvin McKenzie is an abhorrent human being in the employ of another abhorrent human being. He besmirched the reputation of sons and daughters while they were still lying on a slab.
There’s nothing free speech related about inciting hatred, it’s destructive and I fear one day soon we will all pay the penalty. Trump, Farage, Wilders, National Front in France – I’m sure good times are coming.
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@ liz Justice – freedom of speech is both a privilege and a right but it has to be respected. Freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to be racist. Mackenzie does more dmaage to the concept of freedom of speech than anyone. As for your apologist take on THE TRUTH… quite astonishing.
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Almost as astonishing, Liz, as your take on what patronising is. Fatima is young – younger than Harry, I’m betting – and clearly a lady.
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Totally abhorrent from McKenzie. Do we always have to define anti-religious rhetoric as ‘racist’ though?
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