Afternoon:
10°c
BBC fined £150,000 over Ross and Brand prank calls
Jonathan Prynn3 Apr 2009
The BBC has been fined £150,000 for the “gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning” joke phone calls made to actor Andrew Sachs by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand on Radio Two last year.
Media watchdog Ofcom said the size of the penalty “reflects the extraordinary nature and seriousness” of one the most damaging incidents in the corporation's history. It concluded that the broadcasts, which led to Brand's resignation and Ross's three-month suspension, exposed “very serious” weaknesses in BBC management.
In a pre-recorded segment of Brand's late-night show on 18 October, he and Ross left lewd messages on the Fawlty Towers star's answerphone about his granddaughter Georgina Baillie and sang a jokey “apology” to the actor, 78, which was broadcast the next week.
In its ruling Ofcom said: “The BBC broadcast explicit, intimate and confidential information about Georgina Baillie and Andrew Sachs without their consent. This not only unwarrantedly and seriously infringed their privacy but was also gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning.”
The watchdog said it uncovered holes in the BBC's handling of the Russell Brand show that placed the comedian's interests above its duty “to maintain generally accepted standards”.
Ofcom said: “Creative risk is part of the BBC's public service role, however, so is the management of that risk.
“In this case, despite the Russell Brand show being considered by the BBC to be high risk' prior to these episodes, the broadcaster had ceded responsibility for managing some of that risk to those working for Brand.”
Ofcom identified major flaws in the way the BBC handled the broadcasts, including that:
* No senior Radio Two manager listened to all the pre-recorded segment in which the phone calls were made before it was broadcast.
* The BBC did not obtain the “informed consent” of Andrew Sachs to the broadcast and made no attempt to get the consent of Georgina Baillie.
* Compliance paperwork was not filled in and submitted before the 18 October show despite this being a condition of the production contract.
Ofcom said the BBC breached three rules of the Broadcasting Code over the incident, and that Radio One's Chris Moyles Show also breached broadcasting rules when Brand again joked about Miss Baillie.
Reader views (18)
The pair might have been internally disciplined (inadequately in my view, but that is between the Beeb and the two of them), but the fine is something imposed from outside of the BBC - and that is a penalty imposed upon the TV Licence payers, not the perpetrators of this whole stupidly childish and irresponsible mess.
Of course the pair should be held responsible for the fine over and above the nice little three month rest they had (I doubt if either even noticed the negligible loss of income over that period). Anything else is nothing more than an insult when added to the fact of minimal disciplinary measures taken against them.
- Rogan, Irving, 06/04/2009 06:12
Report abuse
So how does that work? Who's money is it anyway? Where does the money come from and where does it go to?
- Frank, ex-England, 05/04/2009 12:04
Report abuse
These two louts make me sick with their perverted insulting "humour". YES, of course they must pay the £150k fine personally. And Ross ought to have been fired at the time by the BBC. Imho, the forced licence fee should be done away with and the BBC made to make its way in life - it already has a commercial arm, doesn't it?
- Ben Adamson, New York, NY, 05/04/2009 04:39
Report abuse
t'is not the bbc alone that should be fined, the two individuals concerned should be castigated
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 03/04/2009 17:55
Report abuse
The BBC don't pay it - we do! Isn't it enough that we are paying Woss's indecent salary without being fined for it too!
- Jack, Yorkshire England, 03/04/2009 17:44
Report abuse
So where does this £150,000 fine go? This is licence fee money no longer available for the purpose it was intended ie making programmes.
- David, Wakefield, England, 03/04/2009 17:27
Report abuse
Ross and Brand should pay this fine, not the British tax payers.
- Vince, London, West London area, 03/04/2009 16:59
Report abuse
What is the point of the fine other than to aggravate us license payers even more!
Like so much else now, the salary Ross and other fairly talentless celebrities are paid is with hindsight ludicrous - Ross's inability to fall on his sword proves that he would have done the job for £50k never mind £6million.
There are thousands of other ex researchers where Ross came from who can also do the cheeky chappy routine who are more than capable of replacing him. So BBC show some moral leadership and remove and replace asap.
- Mike, london, 03/04/2009 15:18
Report abuse
"Take the fine out of Ross's grossly inflated salary!"
They already have done - he was suspended for three months without pay, remember? That's a lot more than £150,000!
- Michael, London, 03/04/2009 14:43
Report abuse
So presumably the money will come out our enforced TV tax? Money that could have been used for some 'quality' programming.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 03/04/2009 14:42
Report abuse
Sorry, but if I am not mistaken Jonathon Ross was suspended with no pay for some months, so I would say the Beeb would have made a saving there!
- Tash, London, 03/04/2009 14:34
Report abuse
Great, so to add insult to injury we, the taxpayer, pay the fine for their misbehaviour. Nice one BBC
- simon, London, 03/04/2009 14:28
Report abuse
Let Ross go and see if he can negotiate a £19m salary from ITV. Good luck to him!!!
- Thomas, London, 03/04/2009 13:33
Report abuse
I presume BBC management are too scared of Ross and Brand to demand they pay this out of their outrageous salaries? Personally I'd be happy not to see either of them on TV again, but unfortunately lots would disagree with me.
- Jon Kent, Hertford. UK, 03/04/2009 13:11
Report abuse
I presume BBC management are too scared of Ross and Brand to demand they pay this out of their outrageous salaries? Personally I'd be happy not to see either of them on TV again, but unfortunately lots would disagree with me.
- Jon Kent, Hertford. UK, 03/04/2009 13:11
Report abuse
Take the fine out of Ross's grossly inflated salary!
- Colin Macpherson, Gramat France, 03/04/2009 13:06
Report abuse
Correction - the taxpayer has been fined £150,000. Perhaps the BBC will now consider clawing the sum back from these two. I'm sure that with Ross's £6million per annum contract, he can afford to pay for both of them.
- Sonia M., St Albans, Herts, 03/04/2009 12:53
Report abuse
The BBC should pay the fine from the wages of this sixteen million pound public liability, or at least from those to blame for this obscene salary.
Perhaps then they can afford to get back to making decent science documentaries for a change?
- Darius Midwinter, London UK, 03/04/2009 12:51
Report abuse
