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On 7 December 2020, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, found that The Family Programme, a live radio broadcast, featured potentially harmful statements about the COVID-19 pandemic without adequate protection for listeners. The regulator currently prioritises cases linked to the coronavirus where programmes may have helped spread misinformation or included misleading material about the illness and public policy in relation to it. The Family Programme is broadcast every Sunday on New Style Radio 98.7 FM, which is a community radio station providing a service for Afro-Caribbean communities...

The BBC has introduced guidance on how BBC representatives should use social media, whether for their work or in a personal capacity. The Social Media Guidance (Guidance) is to be read in conjunction with the BBC’s Editorial Guidance on impartiality. The Guidance is to help preserve the BBC’s reputation for impartiality, as well as to promote compliance with both its own and Ofcom's editorial guidelines. The BBC and its representatives have an obligation to ensure that the BBC’s editorial decisions are not perceived to be influenced by any personal interest or bias. The...

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has published new rules for broadcasters and video-on-demand providers which will apply once the United Kingdom’s transition period for leaving the European Union has expired, that is to say, on 31 December 2020. On 1 January 2021, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), including the country of origin principle, will no longer apply to UK services broadcasting to the European Union. The Council of Europe’s European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT) framework, which came into force in 1993, will continue...

On 24 September and 8 October 2020, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the United Kingdom's independent body established to uphold information rights, imposed fines on two companies for sending thousands of nuisance marketing texts and unlawful marketing emails at the height of the current pandemic. In September 2020, Digital Growth Experts Limited (DGEL) was issued with a monetary penalty of GBP 60 000 in relation to a serious contravention of Regulations 22 and 23 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR). The PECR provide for specific...

Ofcom is required under Article 46 of the BBC Charter to create and operate an Operating Framework for the BBC in order to reduce the risk of the impact that the BBC might have on fair and effective competition. Before the BBC changes its trading arrangements, under the BBC Agreement it must consider whether any of the changes it proposes  are “material”; it may only carry out material changes with the approval of Ofcom.  Material changes are, according to the BBC Agreement: the carrying out of a new type of activity as a commercial activity, or a significant change to the...