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In the UK there have been a number of serious recent scandals involving the conduct of competitions, especially those using premium rate telephone lines for participants (see IRIS 2007-8: 11, IRIS 2007-10: 15, IRIS 2008-2: 13 and IRIS 2008-7: 13). The latest example involved the BBC, rather than a commercial broadcaster. The public broadcaster was fined a total of GBP 400,000 by Ofcom, the communications regulator, for misconduct of competitions in eight television and radio programmes. The competitions had all breached Rule 2.11 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, which requires competitions to be...

In the UK regulation of content of broadcast advertising is delegated by the regulator, Ofcom, to the Advertising Standards Authority set up by the industry itself. The Authority received complaints from two viewers that a television advertisement by Apple for the iPhone was misleading and in breach of three provisions of the Advertising Standards Code requiring that advertisements should not mislead, should not make claims without objective evidence on which to base them and that there should be no implications of capabilities of products beyond those that can be achieved in normal use. The advertisement...

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has considered a large number of complaints about lack of factual accuracy and lack of impartiality in relation to “The Great Global Warming Swindle”, a programme broadcast by Channel 4 which sought to challenge the theory that human activity is the major cause of climate change and global warming. In a separate investigation, it considered complaints of unfairness by scientists referred to or contributing to the programme and by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the first case, the allegation was that the programme presented facts in a misleading...

The BBC trust has found breaches of editorial guidelines and weaknesses in fair trading rules in relation to the sponsorship of BBC-organised events. As a result, the BBC management has decided to end such sponsorship. The BBC does not carry any advertising in its public service broadcasting nor may its programmes be sponsored. However, it has permitted commercial sponsorship of BBC events, notably “Sports Personality of the Year”, and its website offered “rights packages” for such events. After the December 2007 broadcast of this programme, its commercial rival ITV and the organisation representing...

On 21 May 2008, The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) launched a new service, “BBFC.online”. It aims to provide consumer information, thus enhancing consumer trust and confidence when choosing new media content. The scheme applies, on a voluntary basis, the BBFC’s existing eight-fold classification system to content distributed online, including “video on demand, streaming video, download-to-own and portable media devices.” It is “‘Platform Neutral’ – it is designed to cover all forms of digital content delivery (e.g. web, set top boxes, hand-held devices and mobile phones).” The BBFC...