Read through this thread, and I think there may be a misunderstanding on what is going on. The dailymail is also not exactly the best source for this
type of thing.
As I understand it , channels in the UK are regularly fined for breaching broadcast regulations. For example TFI Friday has had a number of faux pas
resulting in fines, as has various comedians etc ... When a band like the Sex Pistols comes on your show and says something inappropriate live, the
channel is fined for the misconduct.
Now I can't speak for all of the channels involved, but PeaceTV for example has
multiple speakers
who don't live in the United Kingdom and are not broadcasting from a local area, thus the police are next to powerless. Some countries have responded
by banning those channels and holding them responsible for their content, but the UK police themselves wouldn't be involved in that either.
The daily mail has been implying that there is some kind of reluctance to handle television channels, but there is fundamental difference to a local
mosque sending out this message and a channel. If the speaker / producer is not a local UK resident (as many of them aren't) they essentially have no
one to prosecute unless the channel says they support that hateful message.
Essentially these channels are small, disorganized, and have incredibly small audiences. Without knowning the number of instances per year, the
location of those instances, it's hard to say if police could act. In fact, you would statistically expect to see more instances of police and
government reacting to more widely watched programs expressing more widely held views. A channel 4 presenter saying all Muslims should be ejected from
the country is going to reach more people by the order of several million. An obsure Muslim channel is simply not going to have the same impact.
To be clear, I'm
not supporting the UKs stance on free speech etc ... In fact, I'm not saying anything about it particularly. I just don't
percieve this situation as some political public statement about Muslims (as much as the daily mail would like you to believe it is) or some minority
ruling the majority type thing.
The examples simply aren't equivolent. I would expect minorities to invoke legal protections more than the majority out of pure statistics, but this
isn't even that argument, nor is it an argument about Muslim opinion in the UK. It's simply the UK government not reacting to minority channels and
the daily mail making news out of the growing fear of Muslim populations in Europe and the UK.
The UK either needs to fully endorse free speech, or hold media and channels up to those in place standards. However, contrary to some cries in this
thread ... no mainstream UK channel to my knowledge has been closed down for enabling a controversial speaker. Why would we expect swift action to be
taken against obscure little watched channels broadcast in other languages?