The Lord Mayor elect of England’s second city has been forced to withdraw from the running for the role after a regional daily declared him “unfit” for office.
As previously reported on HTFP, the Birmingham Mail urged Birmingham City Council to veto the nomination of Muhammad Afzal for the ceremonial position in a hard-hitting front page last Wednesday.
The Mail’s campaign was launched after Cllr Afzal addressed a protest meeting against the Governnent’s anti-terror measures, including the ‘Prevent’ programme in schools, and called Prime Minister David Cameron “Islamophobic”.
While Cllr Afzal denied these claims, an audio transcript proving he had made the remarks was posted on the Mail’s website.
The Mail’s front page on Wednesday following the campaign’s launch
The councillor officially withdrew his nomination from the role yesterday afternoon, just hours before the authority’s controlling Labour group was due to meet to discuss the issue.
However, in a statement confirming he would not be taking up the position in May, Cllr Afzal insisted he had been subjected to “unfair” and “untrue” comments being ascribed to him by the Mail.
Cllr Afzal said: “I consider it a huge honour to be chosen by the Labour Group to be the party’s nominee as the next Lord Mayor. If the council had agreed to this nomination to be the first citizen of such a great city, it would have been the highlight of my career and a great privilege.
“However, recent publicity in the local media has given rise to unfair and indeed untrue comments being ascribed to me. I have tried to put the record straight but sadly it has not been possible to do so as rumour and innuendo has replaced facts.”
Cllr Afzal previously accused the Mail of “sensationalising” his comments over the Prevent anti-terror scheme and said he had been “deeply distressed” by the “unfairness” of accusations against him, despite the emergence of the audio footage.
Following the campaign’s launch, Mail editor Marc Reeves told HTFP: “Cllr Afzal accused us of taking his comments out of context. But no amount of context can ‘un-say’ the words he used.
“We reported accurately what he said and he accused us of sensationalism. He also put out a statement which appeared to contradict the position he’d originally taken.”
Marc added it had been “unthinkable” Cllr Afzal could remain a candidate for the Mayoral role.
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Poor journalism. Weak intellect forcing out a respected politician with sensationalism.
Typical lazy rubbish from Trinity Mirror’s now futile titles in the Midlands.
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Sounds more like actual proper journalism to me.
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untrue and unfair comments? That could only be tested properly in court. But if it is so, why stand down?
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Great result. Good to see proper local, campaigning journalism is not dead. Well done Mr Editor.
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Well done the Birmingham Mail. Journalism is still alive – just – in the regional press.
During my five decades in newspapers, the bleating of press critics always followed the same pattern.
The charge was invariably ‘sensationalism’, ‘taken out of context’, ‘blown up out of all proportion’ or ‘politically motivated’.
These mantras of the braindead were used in an attempt to discredit reporters, but in 99.9 per cent of cases, the stories being complained about were true.
I was intrigued by Kingslayer’s comment. I take it he was only allowed out for the afternoon…off to bed now, there’s a good boy.
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I would like to get to know exactly what was said in this. Audio transcripts are not infallible and can certainly be used out of context. Posting it to the Mail’s website suggests someone has an axe to grind. In the early days of photography, prints were often doctored to fool mass circulation readerships. The same can be applied today to audios.
I certainly would not resign simply because something on a recording seems to go against me .
What were the words exactly, we don’t get to know.
Is it a crime to accuse the Prime Minister of an anti-Islam agenda?
David Cameron is an extremely media savvy politician backed by a wealthy propaganda machine. He knows how to play the game, so much that many of his own MPs are unsure where he stands.
We need honest, if blunt, debate not slippery backhand tactics which only serve to alienate the British people from the democratic process.
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