Case study of a Radio Station: BBC

The ex-BBC Presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand were prosecuted for obscene phone calls to 78-year- old Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs. They left lewd messages regarding his granddaughter. The allegations were that he claimed to have sexual Intercourse with his daughter. Mr. Sachs was deeply upset. These phone calls were broadcasted to two million listeners on Radio 2; as a result Ofcom fined BBC £150,000. The laws that they broke was the Telecommunications Act 1984.

 

In terms of the 12 Legal and Ethical contexts of Local Radio Journalism, the two presenters would have Brocken the following rules. The first rule is ‘Do nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.’ They both intervened in Mr. Sachs private life and caused him a lot of distress as accusations were made towards his family, his granddaughter to be precise. The second rule in which they broke was Produce no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, material status or sexual orientation. The phone call did result to complaints which therefore Ofcom fined them. they  also caused grief to a 78-year-old-man which is stated above that material should not be produced that lead to hatred on the basis of age.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1080621/Russell-Brand-Jonathan-Ross-face-prosecution-obscene-air-phone-calls-Fawlty-Towers-actor-78.html