August 7, 2017

Ofcom has imposed a £17,500 fine on Kanshi Radio Ltd for failing to provide adequate protection for viewers, after it aired potentially offensive and harmful content on its Kanshi Radio station.

Kanshi Radio is a satellite radio station that provides speech and music programming for the Asian Punjabi speaking community in the UK. The Ofcom licence for Kanshi Radio is held by Kanshi Radio Ltd. The Licensee currently holds no other broadcasting licences.

On 1 September 2016 at 00:05, the Licensee broadcast a song Pinky Pinky in Punjabi, which lasted approximately 11 minutes. The lyrics contained a number of aggressively pejorative references to the Muslim community, and Muslim women in particular.

In Ofcom’s decision published on 5 December 2016 in issue 318 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin, Ofcom’s Executive found that the Song constituted hate speech and breached Rules 2.1, 2.3, 3.2 and 3.3 of the Code.

Ofcom’s decided that, given the seriousness of the breach, the appropriate sanction should be a financial penalty of £17,500 and that the Licensee should be directed to broadcast a statement of Ofcom’s findings, on a date and in a form to be decided by Ofcom. (Sanction (107)17 Kanshi Radio Ltd (25 July 2017) — for a link to the full Decision, click here).