BBC Brand/Ross fine

Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross

Ofcom has fined the BBC a total of £150,000 after two episodes of the Russell Brand radio show breached the Broadcasting Code.

The first episode – broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 18 October 2008 – featured Brand and guest Jonathan Ross leaving a series of messages on the answer phone of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

Further references were made to the incident during the Russell Brand radio show broadcast on 25 October.

The scale of today’s fine reflects the extraordinary nature and seriousness of the BBC’s failures and the resulting breaches of the Code.

Gratuitously offensive

The BBC broadcast explicit, intimate and confidential information about Georgina Baillie, the granddaughter of the actor Andrew Sachs, in both programmes without their consent.

Ofcom found that this not only unwarrantably and seriously infringed their privacy but was also gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning.

Broadcasters must be permitted to enjoy the creative freedom to explore issues and ideas without undue interference. Creative risk is part of the BBC’s public service role, however, so is the management of that risk.

In this case, Ofcom’s investigation revealed that despite the Russell Brand show being considered by the BBC to be “high risk” prior to these episodes, the broadcaster had ceded responsibility for managing some of that risk to those working for the presenter, Russell Brand.

Six underlying flaws

The presenter’s interests had been given greater priority than the BBC’s responsibility to avoid unwarranted infringements of privacy and minimise the risk of harm and offence and to maintain generally accepted standards.

Andrew Sachs and Georgina Baillie

Ofcom identified six underlying flaws in the BBC’s compliance systems:

• a lack of clarity about the exact role of a senior figure at the agency that represents Russell Brand, as the Executive Producer, on behalf of the independent production company;
• the failure of the Executive Producer to attend a BBC Safeguarding Trust compliance course, despite this being a condition of the production contract;
• the failure of the Executive Producer to sign off compliance forms for the programmes of 18 and 25 October 2008 ,despite this being a condition of the production contract (it was not known whether he signed off previous forms);
• no proactive testing and insufficient monitoring of the compliance systems in BBC Audio and Music in general, but especially after Russell Brand became an independent production from May 2008;
• an unacceptable conflict of interest for the Line Producer seconded from the BBC on a part-time basis to the independent production company making Russell Brand; and
• a lack of clarity about who at the BBC had editorial oversight of the series.

These overall weaknesses set the scene for the very serious failures of the BBC’s compliance systems that resulted in the repeated broadcast of exceptionally offensive, humiliating and demeaning material.

These failures included:

• no senior manager at Radio 2 listened to the pre-recorded programme of 18 October 2008 in its entirety before broadcast;
• there was a failure to obtain the informed consent of Andrew Sachs;
• there was no attempt at all to obtain consent from Georgina Baillie as required by our Code and the BBC’s own Editorial Guidelines; and
• the failure to complete and submit the compliance forms for Russell Brand before the broadcast on 18 October 2008.

Compliance

Ofcom welcomes the BBC’s assurances about improving compliance.

However, Ofcom was concerned that it had received similar assurances as recently as the summer of 2008, following its investigations into competitions and voting in BBC programmes.

Ofcom therefore expects BBC management to ensure that these latest improvements are fulfilled effectively and quickly.

Specifically, Ofcom found the following rules of the Code were breached: Rule 2.1 (generally accepted standards must be applied programmes); Rule 2.3 (offensive material must be justified by the context); and Rule 8.1 (the ’standard’ requiring adequate protection for members of the public from unwarranted infringements of privacy).

A fine of £70,000 was imposed for the breaches of Rules 2.1 and 2.3; and a fine of £80,000 imposed for the contraventions of Rule 8.1.

Ofcom has also directed BBC Radio 2 to broadcast a summary of its findings.

Read the adjudication in full

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