Ofcom have announced that Channel S World Limited, Channel S Plus Limited and Channel S Global Limited have been fined a total of £40,000 for breaching the TV Advertising Code by repeatedly broadcasting a political advertisement.
The Bengali stations aired an advert 44 times during April this year urging people to “Vote Brian Paddick for Mayoral candidate, and Jalal for GLA candidate…”
Ofcom concluded that the material was in breach of the following Sections of the TV Advertising Code:
4(a), which prohibits advertisements by or on behalf of any body whose objects are of a political nature; and
4(b), which prohibits advertisements that are directed toward a political end.
Ofcom considered this to be a very serious breach of the Code and a flagrant breach of the statutory ban on political advertising. In Ofcom’s experience, no broadcaster has ever transmitted an advertisement that has been inserted by a body whose objects are so political in nature and so obviously directed at a political end.
The full findings can be read here. However it is unclear who from the Liberal Democrats requested the free adverts.
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4 Comments
It’s such a blatant breach, I think we can be pretty sure it wasn’t someone from Cowley St who approached Channel S…
There is no excuse for this. Whoever was responsible was an idiot.
Having said that, I don’t agree with the law as I think it is an attack on free speech. But as long as it is the law it should be respected.
Interestingly, I don’t see how come
“4(a), which prohibits advertisements by or on behalf of any body whose objects are of a political nature; and
4(b), which prohibits advertisements that are directed toward a political end”
does not prohibit unions from advertising against political parties (and thus, by inference, for political parties).
http://www.toryscum.com/images/04-05/unison-subvert.gif
Tom, re your link – the law in question only applies to broadcast advertising. Unions using billboards at election time is regulated, but not prohibited.
Whether these laws will stand up to the proliferation of digital media over the next 20 years, I have no idea, but I’m quite happy that political adverts aren’t allowed on the airwaves.
Interestingly Tom the Communications act 2003 (the relevant piece of legislation) is one of the few bits of legislation to be passed without a declaration from the Secretary of State that it is compatible with the ECHR.
This whole issue was considered by the House of Lords fairly recently
http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/2008/15.html
It will probably all need reviewing again in the light of new digital media as Chris suggests – in particular the issue of adverts on TV shows on “on demand” services like 4OD and BBC iPlayer.