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Those TV phone-in scandals - Ofcom starts re-regulating!
Barry White & Granville Williams
DATELINE: 10/3/08
On 19 February, Ofcom announced measures to strengthen viewer and consumer protection in participation TV programmes through new mandatory licence conditions for television broadcasters.
The new licence will, we are told, ensure that audiences, including those who choose to participate in programmes, are adequately protected and will help restore trust in participation TV by allowing early detection of compliance issues. The announcement brought the following response from Granville Williams, a member of the CPBF national council, in a letter (unpublished) to the Guardian on 20 February:
"There is a bigger story behind the new toughened-up regulatory regime Ofcom has just announced to deal with the operation of premium rate phone lines. (Owen Gibson, Broadcasters face spot checks on phone lines, Feb 20) The series of scandals, when viewers were being ripped off when they entered competitions they had no chance of winning, was a painful test for Ofcom, with its hands-off regulatory approach towards commercial television. And what about the role in all this of the other body, Icstis, now with the dynamic, proactive title PhonePayPlus, which was meant to oversee premium phone regulation?
"An intriguing question is why Ofcom wasn't aware that something was happening before the series of scandals hit the headlines and led to a massive decline in trust amongst viewers? After all one of Ofcom's valuable publications is the annual Communications Market report. It identified as long ago as 2003 that the revenue growth via phone calls and text messages was rocketing, with ITV introducing phone quizzes into its regional news and GMTV weekly competitions for glossy prizes.
"Surely alarm bells should have started to ring then and a preliminary investigation into the practices begun? Instead they became embedded in commercial television. Ofcom's tougher interventionist approach should address the massive regulatory failure which occurred on its watch, but the premium phone line scandal will go down in television history as the UK equivalent to the US quiz show scandals of the 1950s."
Last modified: Monday, March 10, 2008
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Ofcom
Future of Radio consultation
Ofcom rejects Dispatches complaints
On the side of the market
Ofcom rules out immediate cash aid to Channel Four
Commodity or public asset?
Channel 4 Funding
Response to Ofcom's Digital Dividend Review
Ofcom consults on Public Service Publisher
Ofcom backs no change on product placement
Business as usual at Ofcom
Where did it all go wrong for ITV?
Stealth Advertising
Digital Switchover Conference
Review of Cross Promotion Rules
Pulped Fiction – or putting the clocks back
Ofcom publishes Televsion Without Frontiers report
Ofcom broadcasting code guidance
Ofcom's second batch of publications for September
OfcomWatch
Ofcom Code
Ray Snoddy trashes Ofcom
Ofcom adjudications published
Ocom publishes reaction to Ultra Wideband consultation
Ofcom publsihes latest broadcast bulletin
Ofcom awards 15 community radio licences
Ofcom Update: Television Broadcast Licensing Update May 2005
ITV - The Future? ITC & 2008 Franchises Awards
ITV - The Future? ITC & 2008 Franchises Awards
Ofcom publishes Race Equality Scheme
Latest Ofcom Broadcast bulletin (35)
