The Telegraph & Argus has been praised for its race reporting during last year's General Election.

A study by sociologists at the University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University found the T&A displayed the most positive attitudes towards ethnic minorities' engagement in community issues among newspapers in West Yorkshire.

Overall, the study found only ten per cent of 433 race-related stories published in April and May last year related to the British National Party and most showed the BNP in a negative light.

In stories about community engagement, almost a third were supportive of ethnic minorities and the rest were neutral. The most negative stories were those on allegations of election fraud within the Asian community.

The report states: "The Bradford Telegraph & Argus displayed the most positive attitudes towards ethnic minorities' engagement in community issues."

Dr Max Farrar, a sociologist at Leeds Metropolitan University, who was co-author of the report, said: "It seems that the Yorkshire journalists have taken to heart the criticisms that have been made of earlier coverage of race issues and have gone a long way towards cleaning up their act. I hope they keep this up during future elections."

T&A Editor Perry Austin-Clarke said: "I'm very pleased to see that the T&A receives such a positive assessment in this research.

"We pride ourselves on our reputation for, and record of, unbiased and constructive reporting of race and community issues which has been recognised three times in recent years with national Race in the Media awards from the Commission for Racial Equality.

"We believe in reporting Bradford and district as a single community: we don't sectionalise coverage or stereotype our ethnic minority reporters to cover only ethnic or race affairs.

"At the same time, we believe it is important not to fight shy of the genuine concerns of some parts of the community and to help stimulate open and objective debate.

"We take pride in reporting the positive developments in community relations and we have taken a deliberate stance against the BNP, whose underlying views we believe to be abhorrent."