A groundbreaking study released today by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) has uncovered alarming levels of bias and misrepresentation in British media coverage of Muslims and Islam throughout 2025.
Analysing over 40,000 articles from 30 major UK outlets, the report titled “State of British Media 2025: Reporting on Muslims and Islam” concludes that nearly half of the pieces contained measurable anti-Muslim bias, with 70% associating Muslims or Islam with negative behaviours or themes.
This marks the largest such investigation in the UK, highlighting what experts call “structural bias” embedded in newsrooms.
“As the largest study of its kind ever conducted in the UK, this report presents deeply concerning evidence of structural bias in how Muslims are portrayed in the UK press,” said Rizwana Hamid, director of CfMM.
Hamid emphasised that the findings underscore a “corrosive effect” on community cohesion, exacerbating discrimination and hate crimes against Britain’s Muslim population, which constitutes about 6–7% of the country.
The report draws on a rigorous methodology involving computational analysis, statistical validation, and human oversight to assess bias across metrics like generalisations, lack of context, misrepresentation and problematic headlines.
It monitored outlets ranging from left-leaning publications like The Guardian to right-wing ones such as GB News and The Spectator, revealing stark disparities in reporting quality.
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Most biased publications and patterns
The outlets showing the most harmful patterns of reporting were: The Spectator, GB News, The Daily Telegraph, The Jewish Chronicle, Daily Express, The Sun, Daily Mail and The Times.
These outlets scored the worst across all five bias indicators used in the study, suggesting systematic editorial hostility rather than isolated reporting failures.
These publications exhibited rates of bias up to 10 times higher than more balanced outlets. For instance, GB News mentioned Islam or Muslims over 17,000 times in 2025, often framing them as a “powerful electoral force” that politicians like Keir Starmer allegedly fear, amplifying unrepresentative and alarmist views.
The analysis also spotlighted “very biased” content, which accounted for about 20,000 articles – nearly half the total dataset. Critical patterns included sweeping generalisations about Muslims, with The Telegraph emerging as a “favourite” for this tactic.
In contrast, the BBC demonstrated the strongest overall performance, with only 6% of its coverage rated as biased – the lowest among all monitored outlets.
The Guardian followed at 11%, showcasing that large-scale operations can maintain editorial standards under public service obligations.
“The BBC showed the strongest overall performance across metrics, demonstrating that scale does not require sacrificing editorial standards and that public service obligations provide meaningful constraints on harmful framing,” the report states.
Recommendations
In its recommendations, CfMM urges media organisations to adopt fairer practices, including submitting complaints to regulators, providing training on Islamophobia awareness, and fostering dialogue with communities.
It calls for increased Muslim representation in newsrooms and evidence-based reporting to counter distorted narratives.
Rizwana Hamid, Director of CfMM, said: “As the largest study of its kind ever conducted in the UK, this report presents deeply concerning evidence of structural bias in how Muslims are portrayed in the UK press.
“When nearly half of all articles referencing Muslims or Islam are biased, and almost 70% associate Muslims with negative aspects or behaviours, it points to a systemic problem within our media ecosystem. When entire communities are repeatedly framed through lenses of suspicion or threat, it inevitably shapes public attitudes, political debate and the everyday lives of British Muslims.”
Journalist and author Peter Oborne added: “Not all the findings in this report are unexpected. Who would have guessed that the Spectator is the most Islamophobic media outlet in Britain? But this authoritative and fair-minded study is a sobering and scrupulous reminder of the prejudice British Muslims have to endure. And it’s getting worse. Much worse.”
New report exposes systemic bias in UK media’s portrayal of Muslims. A groundbreaking study released today by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) has uncovered alarming levels of bias and misrepresentation in British media coverage of Muslims and Islam throughout 2025.