Ofcom's Broadcast Bulletin, published today, provides scant evidence that the media industry has gone anywhere near managing to clean up its act after the hand-wringing following the PRTS debacle of last year.
GMTV, STV and Westcountry TV are all censured for failing to adhere to sponsorship regulations, with Nestle breaching clear rules that sponsorship credits should not carry explicit advertising messages in its sponsorship of GMTV Weather in March this year and Flybe doing the same on STV and Westcountry TV's weather broadcasts.
ITV is also admonished for broadcasting profanities, including the strongest one that begins with the letter ‘C' that went out at 9.25am in the pre-recorded Jeremy Kyle Show, and by transmitting the word ‘***' in Rock Rivals, show that compliance is nowhere near as rigorous as it should be.
Perhaps the most shocking transgression, however, was from the Christian TV channel Passion TV, where viewers were offered ‘free' Miracle Spring Water that could aid healing. Although the sachet was ostensibly free, recipients were subsequently subjected to a mail-shot campaign pressing for financial payment. Not very Christian to those who are most likely to be vulnerable viewers.
If Passion TV, ITV, GMTV, CGap Media as well as C4 and the BBC, which are not mentioned in the report but are all guilty of sins against their audience, really want to show that they have undergone a Damascene conversion, then perhaps they could borrow an idea from Thomas a Beckett and don a hair-shirt.
