The Guardian covers the publication of research undertaken by the Media Standards Trust into press coverage in the 100 days prior to the publication of the Leveson Inquiry report last November.

The study analyses press coverage from 14th July 2011, the day after the Leveson Inquiry was announced, until 28th November 2012, the day before the report was published. A total of 2,016 news articles from 18 national newspapers were analysed.

The research shows that nine national titles published no positive opinion of the inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press. The titles, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Sunday People, Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday, “were part of a wider pattern of "overwhelmingly negative" coverage of the inquiry into press standards, according to the Media Standards Trust study of more than 2,000 articles,” The Guardian notes.

The MST study shows that a single narrative dominated the coverage and that narrative was largely negative.

The research also shows that “negative coverage of the judicial inquiry "increased drastically" in the 100 days before the report was published, with articles in this period five times as likely to contain only negative viewpoints as only positive ones.

“Newspaper leader columns grew more adversarial on the eve of the report, according to the research, with 23 out of the 28 articles containing only a negative analysis of Lord Justice Leveson's scrutiny of the press.”

Tabloids fare worse in the analysis with “34 out of 43 articles…found to be "negative only" by the researchers, compared with 62 out of 85 reports published by broadsheet newspapers”.

The analysis is not all that surprising given that the newspaper groups that rejected the Royal Charter and devised an alternative, omitting some of the most significant recommendations put forward by Lord Justice Leveson, are none other than the parent groups of the nine titles listed above, Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers, Trinity Mirror, News international and Telegraph Media Group.

The lack of objectivity and patent disregard for the criticisms levelled at the industry’s workings by Lord Leveson should come as little surprise in the case of the worst offenders of ethics, News International and the phone hacking scandal. But such also extends to those who have gained most of the weakness in the extant Press Complaints Commission and the feebleness of self-regulation as it currently operates. In a list compiled by Media Standards Trust of titles that have breached the code most frequently, the Daily Mail tops the list.

The wider consequences on the failure of the press to present an even and balanced argument on the issues raised by the Leveson Inquiry is captured by the author of the MST study, Gordon Ramsay, who writes:

"The strength and vitality of the UK press stems in large part from its ability to present the public with a wide range of authoritative and accessible views on often complex policy issues.

"However, the data gathered here shows that, where press coverage has expressed a view on the Leveson Inquiry, one viewpoint has dominated. Though much of the coverage of the inquiry during the public hearings was neutral, comment and opinion pieces were overwhelmingly negative."

The MST study certainly reinforces arguments advanced by groups pushing for independent self-regulation of the press on the basis that the current system is grossly failing and that the industry is too important in shaping public opinion to be left to its own devices.

There is some coverage in newspapers today on the decision of a local authority in Somerset not to fly the flag of St George on civil buildings. The coverage invariably rehashes the ‘offensive to Muslims’ narrative with the Daily Mail headlining ‘Rural council votes to stop flying flag of St George claiming it is offensive to town's 16 Muslims because of links to CRUSADES’, the Daily Express, ‘Town votes against flying St George's flag as it might be 'offensive' to Muslims’ and the Daily Telegraph, ‘Council vetoes flag of St George after concerns raised about links to Crusades’.

The newspapers report the views of one local councillor, Eleanor Jackson, who is reported as speaking at the council meeting saying: "My big problem is that it is offensive to some Muslims, but even more so that it has been hijacked by the far right.

"My thoughts are we ought to drop it for 20 years."

And while the papers include quotes from spokespersons for the Muslim Council of Britain and the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society, countering views that Muslims could be offended by such a decision, it is only the final sentence in the Daily Telegraph report which provides greater insight into the decision taken.

“Lesley Mansell, the council chair, insisted that the discussion focused primarily on buying a Union flag.

“The statement made by one councillor regarding the St George’s flag was not really taken into consideration.”

How interesting.

Introduction

Thirteen years on from the Runnymede report ‘Islamophobia: A Challenge for us All’, the threat to community cohesion and integration posed by hate crimes carried out against British Muslims and a prevailing popular discourse which vilifies and ridicules Islamic beliefs and practices remains ever present, ever potent.

The establishment of the English Defence League (with its regional spin-offs) and the electoral campaigns run by the British National Party in recent years, reminds us that singling out Muslims and other minority groups in Britain continues to animate sections of our society with detrimental consequences for the security and wellbeing of others.

Introduction

There have been a number of events in the UK in 2010 that have contributed both context and background to incidents of anti-Muslim hatred, verbal and physical, as well as instances of anti-Muslim hate crimes.

As in previous years, the security agenda and counter-terrorism policies continue to influence and shape public and political discourse on British Muslims with debates on social, economic and political integration of minorities eclipsed by wider debates on countering radicalisation among young British Muslims.

Politics and the electoral cycle has informed events of 2010 with a general election in May of that year and the first ever challenge to the victory of an elected MP on grounds of election materials that breached the Representation of the People Act 1983.