Ofcom launch investigation into Muslim TV
BROADCATING watchdog Ofcom has launched a major investigation into British Muslim TV stations that have been helping to raise vast sums of money for overseas mosques and madrassas.
Some of the TV channels under the spotlight are linked to a convicted fraudster.
The satellite stations have been airing all night “fundathon” appeals during the current Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Much of the money is being raised by organisations in Pakistan and Bangladesh that have often just registered as UK charities.
As such, they have little traceable financial history and security sources are concerned how donations could be spent once transferred abroad.
Earlier this year, the head of the Stockport-based Green Crescent charity was arrested in Bangladesh after an arms cache was discovered at an Islamic school his organisation allegedly funded.
The latest appeals are being broadcast in Bengali and Urdu from TV studios in east London.
The charities urge Muslim viewers, many of them poor, to seek salvation by donating during Ramadan.
Channels have been announcing that they are raking in more than £100,000 a night.
Ofcom has been monitoring the broadcasts and is now investigating whether its rules have been broken.
Under its code, broadcasters can only run appeals if they do not charge for airtime.
However, a Sunday Express investigation has discovered that charities are being asked to pay up to £15,000 for an all night slot with viewers unaware that donations are being used to cover those costs.
The channels under Ofcom’s glare are all available on the Sky satellite platform and broadcast to the large Muslim Bangladeshi diaspora throughout Europe.
They include Channel S, ATN Bangla, Bangla TV and Iqra TV.
There is no suggestion that any channel or charities broadcasting appeals are involved with terrorist activity.
According to Ofcom, licences for all channels are held by Channel S Global Ltd, a company founded by, and still run from, the east London offices of Mohammed Ferdhaus, a 36-year-old businessman sentenced in August last year to 18 months in jail for an insurance fraud.
He served four months and launched an appeal against his conviction in July.
He said he has severed all links with Channel S, yet latest files at Companies House show him as the company secretary and sole shareholder.
During a Sunday Express investigation, TV bosses boasted to an undercover reporter that they could help charities raise hundreds of thousands of pounds every night during Ramadan, which started at the end of last month and is due to end next week.
A manager at ATN Bangla said that it had raised £181,000 in just one night for the Bangladeshi Islami University in Dhaka, an institution that registered as a UK charity just last year and which has no financial history in Britain.
Feroz Khan, the boss of Bangla TV, which is based in Hackney, east London, told our reporter, who was posing as a charity trustee, that fundraising slots for this year’s Ramadan were sold out long ago.
A slot for next year could cost £12,000, he said.
After revealing our identity, he said: “We are not a charity, we would not give our time for free. What we are doing is just like teleshopping. It’s part-advertising.”
Asked whether he vetted fundraisers, he said: “My job is to check they are a registered charity and where they are from and that’s it. I don’t have the right to look at their accounts to see how they spend the money.”
He said he did not “have to tell Ofcom” anything when asked whether he had notified the regulator of his charging policies.
A spokesman for Channel S insisted it charged just £600 for appeal slots, that viewers were aware of the costs and that all charities were strictly vetted.
A spokesman for Iqra TV said his was a benevolent educational channel that kept within at least the spirit of the law, while ATN Bangla declined to comment.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer said: “There’s no question that there has got to be a clear audit trail to ensure that funding is used for proper purposes. The security implications are obvious.”
An Ofcom spokesman said: “We take the protection of viewers extremely seriously and when our rules are broken, we take firm action.
“We are currently investigating the matters raised.”
