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Currently, there are before the UK Parliament three proposed items of legislation which, if enacted, will affect the BBC and, in one instance, another public sector broadcaster (PSB): Channel 4. The BBC Licence Fee (Civil Penalty) Bill proposes to decriminalise the non-payment of the BBC licence fee. The prime source of annual revenue for the BBC is a fee that users of its terrestrial, streaming and downland TV services have to pay. There are a limited number of licence fee exemptions, otherwise users are liable to criminal prosecution if caught using the BBC services without a licence....

On 2 September 2020, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the United Kingdom's independent body established to uphold information rights, formally issued its Age Appropriate Design Code of Practice which should be followed by online services to protect children’s privacy. The Age Appropriate Design Code of Practice is a statutory code required under section 123 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) and aims to address the increasing “datafication” of children. The Code was first published on 12 August 2020 and, following completion of its parliamentary...

Chinese news service CGTN was held by Ofcom to have breached rules 5.1, 5.11 and 5.12 relating to impartiality in respect of the Hong Kong protests in response to the Hong Kong Government’s Extradition Law Amendment Bill. The bill would allow criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial. Ofcom deemed that various CGTN news items about the Hong Kong protests had not been duly impartial on a matter of major political controversy and relating to current public policy. Ofcom considers that these breaches merit the imposition of a statutory sanction. CGTN is the international...

On 5 May 2020, Ofcom, the UK broadcasting regulator, announced its decision to fine a broadcast licensee, Club TV Limited, in respect of a programme published by its Peace TV Urdu service. The offending programme was broadcast on 22 November 2017. It was an episode of the series Kitaab-ut-Tawheed about the Islamic punishment of magicians. Ofcom's breach decision was published on 22 July 2019. It found that the licensee had failed to provide adequate protection to members of the public from the inclusion of offensive and harmful material and had thus breached Rules 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 2.3 of...

On 18 May, Ofcom imposed a sanction on Loveworld Limited, which broadcasts a religious television channel called Loveworld, because a news programme and live sermon included potentially harmful claims about COVID-19.  Specifically, an item on the news programme included "unsubstantiated claims" that 5G was the cause of the pandemic; another suggested that hydroxychloroquine was a "cure" for the virus, with no mention made of the fact that this claim was clinically unproven or that the drug has potentially serious side effects. In addition, a sermon was broadcast...