PR9

By Shakeel Uddin

Legal and ethical issues in the UK radio industry

• In the radio industry many rules are set out in order to lessen the chance of illegal or ethical issues being committed. These rules are set out by Ofcom which radio stations have to follow very closely, however sometimes radio presenters take a joke too far. An incident occurred within the radio network, when two Australian DJ's rang up a hospital pretending to be prince Phillip and asking how Kate Middleton’s baby was. The women who answered the phone began to give the DJ's the information about Kate not realising that the phone conversation was being broadcasted on air to thousands of people. The lady did not know this was a prank and therefore when she found out that she had breached about Kate Middleton to random people, ended it by committing suicide. Now this was a massive story and people believed she felt really guilty so this was a big ethical issue. That are many more different ethic issues that can happen broadcasting a big one is personal believes like religion or just have a strong believe that the person should act or behave in a certain way that he thinks is suitable to him. There are others like talking about big companies and big people, morality and just hurting people feelings in general.

Ethical policies and Legal procedures related to radio

• Ofcom have a guidance code and have policies for each section of broadcasting. These policies and legal procedures include Harm and offense, offensive language, religion, fairness, protecting under eighteens, privacy and more. They have a broadcasting code and have High standards to each section such as offensive language on radio, they provide guidance notes to assist radio broadcasters in their compliance with Ofcom Broadcasting Code rules relating to offensive language on radio, in particular in relation to:

• lyrics in music tracks• live music performances/interviews/studio conversation• Speech and comedy content.

Ethical issues that radio producers have to take into account

• Radio producers have to take everything into account and to make sure that they are not offending any if their audience. You can always joke around depending on where you’re broadcasting to but even then they can’t take a joke too far that’s exactly what Russel brand and Jonathan ross did on a radio show. A radio producer is not a presenter but still has the same responsibly as one as they create content and managing the whole radio production process for both live and recorded programmes. So when they’re generating original ideas they have to take into account ethical issues like religion or privacy.

Issues around Alex Dykes comments

• BBC Radio Solent presenter Alex Dyke made comments which led to him being taken off the air

• Alex Dykes broke broadcast regulations by Ofcom for the comments he made on his radio station. He said breastfeeding in public was “unnatural” and “must be stopped” after complaints from listeners and the launch of a petition calling for him to be sacked. He later apologized for what he said but not in an appropriate manner and was still suspended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmK-vlqm3-8

Why were they deemed to be ethically unsound?

• The comments he said about breastfeeding must best stopped did offend many people even people who don’t even do it felt that he was being hurtful towards people that do and complained about it to the BBC. It was an ethical issue as it hurt people decisions on how to lead their own lives.

Ofcom Broadcasting Code • I think Alex dykes comments fall into a few sections in the Ofcom broadcasting

code, but the main one I think it relates to is the offensive language section. It specifically says rules relating to offensive language on radio, in particular in relation to speech and comedy content. Which is what Alex did when he provide with his opinion in discussion manner like a speech with a bit of comedic comments like “yummy mummies”. So therefore this is a violation to the code of broadcasting by Ofcom forcing the BBC suspending Alex dykes.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/guidance/programme-guidance/bguidance/n

Would you class the issue around Dyke’s comments as an emerging social concerns and expectation? What other emerging social concerns and

expectations are there?

• I don’t think dykes comments is a big social concern as there are others that are much more important than this. In his opinion he feels that this is and social concern which offended a lot of people as no one was hurting anyone by doing this. He offended people socially on air and about what they do in public. There other types of emerging social concerns, the media talks a lot about health care and wars. Its is when an individual or group is worried about a certain aspect of society. For example, parents may have social concern that violence in the media might influence their children. Such as video games, movies TV shows and etc. Another social concern is child labour that has been happening in other countries that are not more fortuned like the UK or America. People have worries about people futures living in these types of environments. There are other like alcoholism, airport security, chemical weapons, health care, unemployment's and the list goes on.