London, England - West Midlands Police are facing accusations of "serious misjudgement" after their complaint against a Channel 4 investigation into extremism at British mosques was comprehensively dismissed by Ofcom.
Police had claimed that the Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics through misleading editing.
But the decision has rebounded on the force after the broadcaster won praise from the media watchdog as a "legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest."
The production company involved has told Channel 4 News they are considering legal action against the police.
Adding to the police embarrassment, Ofcom continued: "On the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts), Ofcom found that the broadcaster had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context."
Following today's ruling, Channel 4 called the police's actions "perverse" and said they had, in some people's eyes, given "legitimacy to people preaching a message of hate".
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, accused the police of stepping beyond their remit.
"Their action in submitting a complaint to Ofcom about a television programme raises wider issues of what action it is appropriate for police forces to take in cases like this," he said. "Once they were clear that no criminal offence had been committed, it was in my view a serious misjudgement to continue to pursue the editorial team and risked impeding freedom of speech."
The programme featured undercover recordings from speakers alleged to be homophobic, anti-Semitic, sexist and condemnatory of non-Muslims.
Excerpts from preachers and teachers included "Allah created the woman deficient" and "by the age of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force her (young girls) to wear hijab and if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her".
Other statements included "take that homosexual and throw him off the mountain" and "whoever changes his religion from Al Islam to anything else - kill him in the Islamic state".
Police initially launched an investigation into whether criminal offences had been committed at the mosques and other organisations featured in the programme.
They then said that it considered offences may have been committed by those involved in the production and broadcast of the programme, specifically in stirring up racial hatred.
After the Crown Prosecution Service advised that the prospect of conviction was unlikely, police referred Undercover Mosque to Ofcom, complaining that intense editing had misrepresented those featured in the programme.
Ofcom also rejected the 364 viewers' complaints it received after the programme was broadcast, which it said appeared to be part of a campaign.