Insights Ofcom imposes statutory sanction on satellite broadcaster for breaching standards provisions of the Broadcasting Code

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Ofcom has imposed a £75,000 fine on Mohiuddin Digital Television Ltd for failing to provide adequate protection for viewers after it aired potentially offensive and harmful content on its Noor TV channel. The broadcast programme consisted of 15 religious scholars and preachers addressing an assembled congregation with short sermons, homilies and poetic verses.

Under Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code, all licensees must apply generally-accepted standards to the content on their TV and radio services, so that audiences are adequately protected from offensive and harmful material.

After an investigation, Ofcom found that comments made by a speaker could have resulted in serious risk of harm and caused unjustified offence to audiences. Ofcom concluded that the serious nature of the breach, namely the broadcast of anti-Semitic hate speech in pre-recorded content, indicated a failure of compliance oversight by Mohiuddin Digital Television and a lack of sufficiently robust compliance procedures in place at Noor TV. Such a serious breach of the Broadcasting Code warranted a statutory sanction. To read Ofcom’s Decision of Sanction against Mohiuddin Digital Television Ltd in full, click here.

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