Rather than investigate the Islamic preachers revealed by the Channel 4 documentary Undercover Mosque, British police reported the filmmakers to the UK’s media watchdog organization, Ofcom. Now Ofcom has completely vindicated Channel 4, with strong words for the police who are more concerned with shutting down criticism of Islam than with protecting the British public.

Channel 4 has been vindicated by the media watchdog Ofcom after police complained about an investigative programme that exposed extremism in British mosques.

West Midland’s police had faced criticism for targeting the producers of the show rather than the controversial preachers depicted in it. Ofcom added fuel to that debate by praising Undercover Mosque as a “legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest.”

The watchdog added: “Ofcom found no evidence that the broadcaster had misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity.

”On the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts), Ofcom found that the broadcaster had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context.“

Police claimed that the Dispatches programme had misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics with misleading editing.

Following today’s ruling, the Channel 4 called the police’s actions ”perverse“ and said they had, in some people’s eyes, given ”legitimacy to people preaching a message of hate".