Ofcom unable to fine individuals over BBC lewd phone call scandal

Published on Sunday 5 April 2009 13:20

A £150,000 fine imposed on the BBC over the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand lewd phone call scandal could not be levied against the individuals without a change in the law, Ofcom said today.

The regulator said it did not have the powers to fine individuals after Cabinet Minister Hazel Blears suggested the fine should be paid by Ross and Brand themselves, rather than the public.

Ofcom imposed the fine for what it called the "gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning" prank calls, broadcast last October on Brand's Radio 2 show.

"Parliament decided for very serious breaches of our broadcasting rules the BBC would be subject to a maximum fine of 250,000," an Ofcom spokesman said.

"These powers only allow for fines to be levied against the BBC and not individuals, to do so would require a change in the law."

It said the fine, a record for the BBC for a single case, reflected the "extraordinary" nature and seriousness of the BBC's failures and breaches of the Broadcasting Code.

Yesterday, Ms Blears, the Communities Secretary, told BBC Radio 4's Any Questions: "I was quite surprised when I read about this, that Ofcom were fining the BBC. The BBC is funded by all of us as licence-payers, so actually, are we having to pay the fine?"

To loud applause from the studio audience she added: "Then I thought maybe Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand should pay it... that might be quite a good idea."

She spoke out after calls, some from opposition politicians, for Ross to pay the fine from his own wage – estimated at 6 million a year.

"This money should come out of Jonathan Ross's salary so that broadcasting does not suffer as a consequence of this error," Liberal Democrat spokesman Don Foster said.