Ofcom Hits BBC With 150,000 Pound Fine Over Sachsgate

The Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross “Sachsgate” mess continued with a 150,000 pound fine for the BBC. Ofcom ruled that Mr. Brand and Mr. Ross left “gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning” messages on Mr. Sachs’ answering machine and that the network is responsible. Ofcom noted that

This list of weaknesses is all the more extraordinary considering that the senior management of BBC Radio always regarded Russell Brand as a ‘high risk’ series, and considering the assurances given to Ofcom that the compliance systems of BBC Radio would be improved after an earlier and very serious breach of the Code by The Russell Brand Show on BBC 6 Music in the summer of 2008. At that time the BBC gave Ofcom clear assurances about improvements made, or to be made, in the quality of its compliance generally and in BBC Radio in particular. The evidence in this case clearly showed that the necessary improvements were not implemented quickly or effectively. The risk for the BBC of breaching the Code was increased by the highly unsatisfactory compliance arrangements approved by the management of Radio 2 in May 2008 whereby Russell Brand should no longer be made in house but by an independent production company partly owned by Russell Brand. The Committee was deeply concerned by the failure or ineffectiveness of the BBC’s compliance, risk management and management procedures described above in relation to Radio 2 and the impact this had had in this case.

Read the full adjudication here.