The conviction of the 11 Paedophiles in Huddersfield for rape offences were correctly described by BBC News as men of Pakistani heritage. This is the first time that the BBC has accurately reported on the ethnicity of the perpetrators instead of using the all pervasive and generic term “Asians” and is a welcome development. Many of your readers have rightly called for the accurate and more precise reporting of the ethnicity of the perpetrators of these terrible crimes, as they felt that the use of the term “Asians” unfairly implicated us all. Many of your readers are very perturbed when the media uses the term “Asians” to lump everyone under that category, especially when reporting criminal activities, as it creates a negative stereotype/image of all “Asians” in the minds of the indigenous population. This is something that we should all be very concerned about as such a negative image/perception can affect our safety and well being as we all go about our normal daily business in life.
Thanks to those in our community who have made representations to the media houses and managed to persuade them for more accurate reporting of ethnicity. Hopefully, this small but important change in reporting will lead to a more safer environment for our children and grand children in the UK. However, no sooner than the breaking of this story on national media last week, the Home Secretary tweeted referring to the convicts as “sick Asian Paedophiles”! Was he seeking to deflect the blame from men of Pakistani heritage, as reported? I wonder!
Dinesh Rai
By email
