[cma-l] is there anybody in there?

[Julian Mellor]

Earlier this week I saw Ofcom's ruling about a breach of the  
broadcasting code by a community station not far from here.

Apparently a request show was repeated, a member of the public called  
in to speak to the presenter, was told that in fact the show was a  
repeat, and so the said member of the public complained to Ofcom that  
the station was in breach of rule 2.2 (not to materially mislead).   
Instead of find the complaint malicious and trivial, Ofcom found  
against the station and said that they had breached the trust of their  
listeners.

This raised alarm bells for me as we repeat most of our programmes and  
most invite listeners to email or text in with comments (and sometimes  
requests). However, rarely, if ever, do presenters give a date stamp  
during their programmes so the repeat could be perceived to be live  
(although there is absolutely no intent to deceive or mislead and most  
listeners know our schedule well enough or look at the website to see  
if its live or not).  Equally some presenters, especially newbies,  
often read out the contact details for want of something to say, but  
then forget to check the emails (which could be construed as deception).

I raised the issue with Ofcom of this seemingly draconian  
interpretation of rule 2.2 (introduced to stop broadcasters running  
pseudo competitions on premium lines) and pointed out that, as a  
community station staffed entirely by volunteers, we don't have the  
capacity to monitor, enforce and edit everything to the level they  
seem to be requiring.  I said that it would be likely to drive away  
presenters and stop us repeating anything.  Surely, I said, Ofcom does  
not want to constrain community broadcasters in this way.

They came back the same day (preferring to call rather than write) and  
said it is indeed their intention to constrain broadcasters.  The way  
around it, they said, is for any repeated shows to give a date  
reference when inviting listeners to make contact.  Furthermore,   
presenters must not invite contact if they are likely to forget to  
check the messages.

I sent out an instruction to our presenters and already one has come  
back saying it will destroy his spontaneity and, given that he can't  
guarantee that a date reference will always be given, he is  
withdrawing his repeats (4 hours of lost programming per week and many  
saddened listeners).

I instinctively react against people banging on about nanny states,  
red tape etc, but this seems absolute madness and inspires me to move  
to Tunbridge Wells from where I shall write to my MP.

How does everyone else deal with the issue?

(And for the avoidance of doubt this is written live at 9:15am on  
Thursday 26 May but I may be away from my desk when you reply)

Julian

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