LONDON -- A Fox News programme that described Birmingham as a "no-go zone" for non-Muslims breached the UK's broadcasting regulator's code.
Ofcom says in its September Broadcast Bulletin, published Monday, that a Fox News interview carried out by Jeanine Pirro with terrorism analyst Steve Emerson was in breach of rule 2.2 of the code, which states that factual programmes must not "materially mislead the audience."
Expert Emerson was appearing on the programme Justice with Judge Jeanine on Jan. 11 following the Paris attacks when he made a series of claims.
"You basically have zones where sharia courts were set up, where Muslim density is very intense, where the police don't go in, and where it's basically a separate country almost, a country within a country," he said.
"So in Britain there are not just ‘no-go zones’ there are actually cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims just simply don’t go in."
Ofcom said that assertions about Birmingham and Paris having "no-go zones" were "clearly misleading" especially at a time of heightened sensitivity in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
After the broadcast, Fox News apologised on air four times on Jan. 17.
“There is no formal designation of these zones in [France or the United Kingdom] and no credible information to support the assertion there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion," Fox Report anchor Julie Banderas said in one of the apologies.
In its report, Ofcom said Fox News was in breach of the code because the regulator was concerned the station did not act sooner to correct the misleading statements or broadcast an apology.