A national TV channel has been criticised after it mistook someone else for the mayor of Brighton and Hove in a news report last night (Tuesday 16 July).
The GB News show Patrick Christys Tonight showed a clip of a bearded man receiving garlands from some other men and said that he was the mayor, Mohammed Asaduzzaman.
The clip was broadcast as Mr Christys discussed proposals announced by the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to devolve some government powers to the regions.
During the show, Mr Christys said: “More power would also end up in the hands of regional mayors, right, so like Brighton and Hove’s recently elected mayor, for example, Mohammed Asaduzzaman, who I think we have a clip of here.
“Alright, ok, realistically, do we want more power in the hands necessarily of people like that?”
A clip from the show was tweeted by Queen’s Park resident Adrian Hart who criticised the error.
Disappointed in @GBNEWS /Patrick Christys. Cheap point based on lazy and ignorant assumption about Brighton’s Mayor Asaduzzaman using a video clip that isn’t him. Brighton’s Mayor (has no powers and carries out ceremonial duties). I hope GB News will apologise to @MayorOfficeBHCC pic.twitter.com/KKeENWbMB8
— Adrian Hart (@AdrianHartQuPk) July 16, 2024
The Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Bella Sankey, said: “This is more racist garbage from the GB Disinformation Service.
“Not only does this clip not feature our fantastic mayor, Councillor Mohammed Asaduzzaman, but it wrongly claims he is a regional mayor rather than our city’s ceremonial mayor.
“We need an immediate apology from GB News and a retraction and will be referring this embarrassment to Ofcom.”
The mayor of Brighton and Hove is expected to be politically neutral and the role is ceremonial with no direct power.
Councillors elected the mayor to be Brighton and Hove’s first citizen at the annual council meeting on Thursday 16 May. He spent the previous year as deputy mayor to Councillor Jackie O’Quinn.
During their year in office, the mayor represents Brighton and Hove locally, nationally and internationally.
Since May, Councillor Asaduzzaman has attended a range of events from citizenship ceremonies to D-Day celebrations and the official launch of new cricket nets at the Stanley Deason Leisure Centre.
Councillor Asaduzzaman was elected as a Labour councillor for Hollingdean and Fiveways ward in May last year.
He has lived in Brighton for 30 years and has been involved with numerous charities and cultural organisations in the area.
He was born in Bangladesh and has a degree in political science. He worked with the State Minister for Irrigation and Water Development before moving to Britain.
GB News was approached for comment.
The most astonishing part of this story is that would-be councilor Adrian Hart does not understand the process by which councilors are elected and the mayor is appointed. Given his four failed attempts to be elected to the council, one might have wondered why he and his fellow residents were never asked to vote for Brighton’s “elected” mayor. Wishing Mayor Asaduzzaman all the best and hope he has not received any unpleasant messages as a result of this mix-up.
For the avoidance of doubt, I condemned GB News producers for defaming Mohammed Asaduzzaman and brought this grotesque error to the attention of the Mayor’s office and B&H News (see the wording of my tweet below).
Queens Park Kate – I’ve known Mohammed for over 15 years and, like you, wish him all the best. But although the error of the normally brilliant GB News in this instance is unforgivable, your misinterpretation of this article shares the same feature that blights political discourse (I’d describe this as an eagerness to jump to the conclusions our prejudices prefer).
This was the tweet Sarah Booker-Lewis refers to:
“Disappointed in
@GBNEWS
/Patrick Christys. Cheap point based on lazy and ignorant assumption about Brighton’s Mayor Asaduzzaman using a video clip that isn’t him. Brighton’s Mayor (has no powers and carries out ceremonial duties). I hope GB News will apologise to
@MayorOfficeBHCC”
The other predictable part of this story is that Bella Sank so low as to call out GB news for this honest mistake when I don’t recall her or the council criticising BBC News/Guardian/Independent etc., for their long-standing and regular malicious/intended misinformation, bias and propaganda news stories, e.g. Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza casualties which they blamed on Israel and inflated numbers, to feed the Far-Left agenda, all of which feeds the minds of the pro-pal fans in Brighton.
Looking forward to Brighton Pride 2025 😊
It makes me sad how little we’ve moved forward over the years. GB news and the cesspit which is X (twitter) in particular.
The sheer amount of misinformation and racism on there is unbelievable. Darren Grimes has also spread the video as true, lying toerag. I hope the mayor is OK and is able to rise above this nonsense.
Using twitter as one of your examples Sarah. Having, nearly exclusively left leaning employees, high ranking ex federal employees that were exclusively politically aligned to 1 of 2 US political parties, further having one ‘side’ l, literally, hand names of people they want silenced for holding opposing political views & that entity wielding it’s unchecked power to dictate, silence and suppress any who fail to abide by said entities employees group think & political preferences was never a moral, ethical or humanitarian existence.
Having the above, documented & verified by Twitter’s own records both internally & between State / Government instruments across the globe exposed, checked, addressed & ‘corrected’ IS a positive outcome for humanity as a whole ( rather than certain factions of it).
Opposing voices being able to share their thoughts and/or challenge ideas isn’t “racist”. A voice you don’t agree with isn’t an evil simply because you may now have to read or see it. That voice is there for all of us to challenge if we disagree & one that we have to accept we won’t always be able to find common ground with. That voice still deserves to be able to have it’s words heard. Society can, and qill, judge it on its statement. Together we can expose it’s hate or learn it’s wisdom.
Silencing those voices just coz we don’t like some of the things they say or because they don’t comply with our own pov is how you spread, fester, amplify and deepen hate & division.
FYI whilst you’re entitled to believe what you believe. Objectively until said court cases are concluded several people/ organisations who asserted X as now being more “racist” have either lost in court when proven untrue or are currently trying to prove a statement already adjudicated in numerous jurisdictions as false to be otherwise.
Again. You do you. But I’d be remiss not to mention your targets known propensity for litigation
Clayton, you’ve gone completely on an tangent and to be honest I’ve no idea what you’re going on about. It sounds conspiracy mumbo jumbo to the normal person. Sharing a video known to be false calling the mayor all sorts is racist I’m afraid whether you like it or not.
I haven’t said x is more or less racist than before, simply that there are a lot of racist comments directed at the mayor. You’ll note the leader of the council has called it racist and I agree. I’m allowed to say it’s racist and my voice can be heard as well.
Citizen khan, lol,
Never seen adrian hart get facts wrong like this before
Maybe his account was hacked
Read my tweet:
“Disappointed in
@GBNEWS
/Patrick Christys. Cheap point based on lazy and ignorant assumption about Brighton’s Mayor Asaduzzaman using a video clip that isn’t him. Brighton’s Mayor (has no powers and carries out ceremonial duties). I hope GB News will apologise to
@MayorOfficeBHCC”
https://x.com/AdrianHartQuPk/status/1813332886080364643
Not looking at your tweet
https://newschecker.in/fact-check/viral-video-does-not-show-the-new-brighton-mayor/
Newschecker found that that video does not feature Mohammed Asaduzzaman, the new Mayor of Brighton and Hove. In fact it shows an Islamic cleric, Muhammad Asghar.
——
NOTE: Cllr Asaduzzaman has also made “failed attempts” to get elected to the council in the past as Independent.
poor journalism indeed from GB news on this occasion. Interestingly, our B&H mayor’s Twitter/X feed is blocked to the public but when first ‘elected’, in a highly unusual way (his mates thought he was a good egg), at least one of his tweets included the well-known jihad calling, “Allahu Akbar”, which I suspect on this occasion was not meant in the way we have experienced but more of a celebration. I imagine he gets a fair bit of abuse.
Although our B&H muslim mayor doesn’t have any power on decision making, one does wonder how his presence influences those who do. I do hope our city doesn’t see scenes demonstrated in London yesterday where central London was taken over for the marking of Ashura by hoards of self-flagellating muslims waving terrorist flags, closing roads, closing Marble Arch tube station, with examples of arabic writing on flags saying “Victory with the help of Allah and an imminent conquest”. Yes, conquest.
Poor journalism indeed from GB news on this occasion, as always.
GB news (allegedly an entertainment channel rather than a news channel) continually seeks to distort the real world for propaganda purposes. Like their Trumpist friends who try to suggest that the UK is under Islamic control.
You can bet that the clip was chosen deliberately.
GB news is run for and by right-wing extremists who are financed by multi-millionaires but they claim to be fighting the establishment. Which is the same story that Trump peddless in the US.
The fact is we’re letting Islam talk over government position and they only have one thing in mind. the progression of an Islamic world.
I look forward to when these liberals will see that. But it’s everyone else to go after they’ve been dealt with.
Anyone with a shred of intelligence and honesty can see that.