TV and Radio Compliance Consultant
A fascinating decision today by Ofcom (8 October 2018) suggests the regulator might be adopting a slightly softer line on due impartiality. All broadcasters involved in this area should study it very closely. It is quite exceptional for Ofcom to… Continue
Ofcom’s latest Broadcast Bulletin (25 September 2018) offers a timely reminder to broadcasters about the need to stop star presenters turning into crusaders on air and ignoring the need to be duly impartial and fair. The… Continue
With young Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS, pictured) at the helm and trying to present a more modern image of Saudi Arabia, a bureaucrat in the Kingdom’s Centre for International Communication must have thought it would be a good plan to advertise… Continue
So the BBC’s new editorial director, Kamal Ahmed, has said at the Edinburgh Book Festival that somebody coming forward from 1990 to view the News At Ten in 2018 would “pretty much recognise what they are… Continue
The due care of young people when making programmes is a tricky compliance area. Rule 1.28 requires broadcasters to take ‘due care’ of the welfare of under 18s who are involved in programmes. Where it is an entertainment broadcast and… Continue
It is not every day that I am phoned up by The Sun on Sunday to comment on one of their exclusives. But this happened on Saturday when the newspaper was preparing its… Continue
Cliff Richard is not the only person looking pensive after his High Court privacy victory over the BBC on 18 July. Many broadcasters are asking what it means for them in terms of their fairness and privacy (F&P) duties under… Continue
Ofcom’s tough line on hate speech is illustrated in its latest Bulletin (2 July 2018). A number of Ofcom-licensed channels aimed at Muslim viewers in the UK have in recent years seriously breached the Broadcasting Code by televising material encouraging… Continue
Ofcom has been under pressure from the anti-smoking lobby for many years with complaints about the prominence of smoking in drama series – or even cartoons like Tom and Jerry. Ofcom has steered… Continue