BBC fined for £150,000 for THAT prank call scandal

Posted by heatworld on Friday 03 Apr 2009

Filed under: Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand

It’s just been announced that the BBC have been fined a whopping £150,000 by Ofcom for Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’ whole phone call hoo-ha. The BBC said the size of the fine was down the “extraordinary” breaches of the Broadcasting code and the fact that Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter Georgina Bailie’s privacy was invaded so severely. “This not only unwarrantably and seriously infringed their privacy, but was also gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning,” said Ofcom. However, they did point out that broadcasters should be allowed creative freedom – but that they need to manage this freedom properly. “The presenters' interests had been given greater priority than the BBC's responsibility to avoid unwarranted infringements of privacy,” they said. Still, it doesn’t seem to have done either of the presenters too much harm, does it?