<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I thought I'd share this with you all - possibly as a cautionary tale. <div><br></div><div>Locally we have a conservative candidate whose mother has been critically ill during the campaign (and indeed she died on Tuesday evening). Some rather nasty comments have been made on local websites (not ours) about the candidate's absence to be at her bedside but after the actions of one of our volunteers who sent a rather nasty email in our name late on a Friday evening (the person has confessed and has taken full responsibility) we seem to have become embroiled in the local mud fight. The local conservatives are now clearly after us (although the candidate's campaign manager accepted my apology for the email shortly after it came to light) and are monitoring our broadcasts looking for the slightest reason to make complaints about what we do whether on or off air.</div><div><br></div><div>As you'll see from the press release below, we're now being criticised for what we didn't broadcast (rather than what we did broadcast) from a recording of political hustings made earlier this week. The edited exert was a complaint about a photographer - to me at least this was clearly not part of the debate between candidates (the Lib Dem candidate said nothing about it) so it felt legitimate to cut it out, along with other parts of the recording, in order to reduce total time to a one hour broadcast. To the complainant, however, this represents political bias.</div><div><br></div><div>Quite how this level of scrutiny, control and criticism marries up with notions of everyone being empowered to engage in community action and the Big Society I can only wonder - but then that's probably expressing political partiality which they say we, as community media, mustn't do on or off-air!</div><div><br></div><div>I don't know if the press are going to pick this up, or if Ofcom will receive a complaint and launch an investigation. But it all takes up the time of volunteers to respond - which we'd much rather spend more constructively working with our local community.</div><div><br></div><div>Of course they do say 'any publicity is good publicity'!</div><div><br></div><div>Julian<br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444"><blockquote type="cite">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">trevor morgan</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:verthandi@hotmail.co.uk">verthandi@hotmail.co.uk</a>></span><br>Date: 29 April 2010 11:03<br>Subject: 10 Radio "political bias"<br>To: 10radio 10radio <<a href="mailto:info@10radio.org">info@10radio.org</a>>, alex cameron <<a href="mailto:alex.cameron@countygazette.co.uk">alex.cameron@countygazette.co.uk</a>>, welli weekly <<a href="mailto:wellyedit@tindlenews.co.uk">wellyedit@tindlenews.co.uk</a>><br><br><br><div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB">Press Release</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><b><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><b><span lang="EN-GB">10 Radio Claim of “Political bias”</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><b><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This morning (Thursday 29 April), 10Radio broadcast what they claimed to be a recording of a general election hustings meeting in Wiveliscombe.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">What they did in fact was to broadcast an edited version of the meeting.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Under a regulation issued by their regulator, Ofcom, they may must report with total impartiality.<span> </span>This they have not done.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Throughout the meeting a photographer employed by Jeremy Browne was constantly hovering around another candidate, Mark Formosa, constantly photographing him.<span> </span>This was no doubt in order to get a suitable shot to show an opponent in an unflattering light.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Eventually Mr </span><span lang="EN-GB">Formosa</span><span lang="EN-GB"> was forced to protest about this behaviour.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This part of the meeting showed the Liberal Democrat candidate in a poor light.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In editing this section out it is clear that 10Radio have acted with undue partiality.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This is not the first time they have acted in this manner.</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">When recently they were sent a press release saying that Mark Formosa would be stepping down from campaigning as his mother was ill that replied:</span></p><div><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">“</span><span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">We are not interested. Please don't play the sympathy card here again.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">”</span></span></span></b></p><div><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Says Trevor Morgan, Chairman of Wellington Conservatives:-<span> </span>“Over many year I lobbied for both educational radio and community radio.<span> </span>I have considerable radio experience and it is with great sadness that I now feel obliged to complain about the dreadful and hurtful behaviour of 10 Radio and about breach of duty to report with any undue impartiality”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><br></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">"They are not permitted to show any undue partiality towards any political party or politician and if they do they are open to the risk of losing their license"</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><br></span></span></p><div><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Ends.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><br></span></span></p><div><font color="#444444"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "></span></font><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><font color="#444444"><div style="margin-top: 0em !important; margin-right: 0em !important; margin-bottom: 0em !important; margin-left: 0em !important; padding-top: 0em !important; padding-right: 0em !important; padding-bottom: 0em !important; padding-left: 0em !important; text-indent: 0in !important; "><span style="text-indent: 0in !important; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="text-indent: 0in !important; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Footnote: Subsequent to these incidents Mark Formosa’s mother has passed away. </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="text-indent: 0in !important; "><span style="text-indent: 0in !important; "> </span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0em !important; margin-right: 0em !important; margin-bottom: 0em !important; margin-left: 0em !important; padding-top: 0em !important; padding-right: 0em !important; padding-bottom: 0em !important; padding-left: 0em !important; text-indent: 0in !important; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="text-indent: 0in !important; "> </span></p></font><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Trevor Morgan</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Chairman, Wellington Conservatives</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#444444">01823 660718</font></p><div><span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="hm"></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></font></div><div class="hm"></div></div></div></div></body></html>