Watchdog finds STV guilty of breaching sponsor guidelines

STV has been found guilty of a "serious breach" of sponsorship guidelines by producing and broadcasting 18 short programmes which were "akin to advertisements" for the Scottish Government.

The media regulator Ofcom investigated 57 programmes sponsored by the Scottish Government, agencies and non-departmental agencies broadcast on STV in 2008 and 2009, and ruled 18 had breached its codes.

The 18 public information-type programmes ranged in length from one minute to four minutes and their subject matter included Scottish pork, learning opportunities, and care services.

The offending series were identified as Time for Change, Learning Journeys, The Great Scottish Meal, A Day in the Life and My Journey.

The investigation into STV's output was sparked by newspaper reports earlier this year alleging that the Scottish Government may have influenced the broadcaster's programming to promote itself for political gain.

The initial allegations focused on a trio of "Homecoming Programmes": Made in Scotland, Scotland Revealed and The Greatest Scot.

Ofcom's summary of findings stated: "In the circumstances of these 18 programmes, Ofcom considered that STV had sought programme funding to create programmes that were effectively vehicles for the purpose of promoting the sponsor's interests.

"In effect, in some cases, the programming appeared akin to an advertisement for the sponsor or its activities. Given the inherent inability of such programmes to comply with the code's approach to sponsorship, Ofcom concluded that in these cases, STV's responsibility and editorial independence had been impaired by the sponsorship arrangements."

Ofcom's rules on sponsorship state that "a sponsor must not influence the content and/or scheduling of a channel or programme in such a way as to impair the responsibility and editorial independence of the broadcaster".

However, Ofcom rejected the newspaper allegations, stating: "With regard to any other STV programming, such as news, current affairs and its coverage of Scottish politics, Ofcom found that there was no evidence or implication that the Scottish Government had influenced the content in such a way as to impair STV's responsibility and editorial independence."

Responding to the watchdog's findings, STV welcomed its conclusion that there had not been "any suggestion of political interference" in its scheduling, but referred to the 18 breaches as being "technical", adding "Of the 906 minutes of material, broadcast over a two-year period, under investigation by Ofcom, just 18 minutes of short form social action programme inserts raised concerns."

However, an Ofcom spokesman hit back at STV's playing down of its findings, stating that the "technical breach" referred to by STV was no such thing.

He said: "It's not a technical breach, it's a serious breach, there's no such thing as a technical breach - if you breach the rules, you breach the rules," adding that while the broadcaster had escaped a fine this time, the breaches would remain on its licence.

Reacting to the report, a Scottish Government spokesman said: that it: "Welcomed the fact the report totally vindicates the position of the Scottish Government against the charges of critics, which have been found to be baseless.

"The STV Homecoming programmes were the idea and initiative of STV, and as the Ofcom report makes clear it was entirely appropriate for government to promote the opportunities of Homecoming in this way."