Archive for ofcom

Ofcom rejects complaint from Lord Ashcroft over reporting of his tax status

21 June 2010 , , ,
Ofcom’s judgement summary reads: On 17 December 2009, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an edition of Today, its early morning news and current affairs programme, which included an item looking back at the preceding day’s activities in Parliament and discussed questions put to Ms Harriet Harman MP (who was standing in for the Prime Minister) during [...]

Ofcom publishes draft code for internet piracy

2 June 2010 , , , ,
At the end of last week the regulator Ofcom published a draft of the code to be followed for taking action against online copyright infringement following the passage of the Digital Economy Act. As Rory Cellan-Jones points out, some aspects of the draft code deal with concerns raised during the passage of the Act. In particular, [...]

People increasingly prefer to do business online

20 May 2010 ,
Ofcom’s latest ‘Media Literacy’ survey is out and it includes some significant findings for firms wishing to sell to the public: Communication preferences have changed since 2005 – for example, adults are now more likely to prefer to check their bank balance online (30% vs. 22%) and less likely to prefer to check their bank balance [...]

Ofcom rejects SNP/Plaid objection to TV debate

28 April 2010 , , , ,
A message from Ofcom brought this news today: Ofcom today announced it has not upheld complaints received from the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru about The First Election Debate broadcast on ITV1 at 8.30pm on Thursday 15 April 2010.  The political parties complained that the programme was not impartial and was also misleading. The complaints were [...]

Baroness Buscombe:what should we make of this combination of views?

5 December 2009 , , ,
Baroness Buscombe has me intrigued. She’s in favour of the media attacks on the House of Commons, but against those on the House of Lords. (Source) She’s in favour of the Press Complaint Commission’s remit being extended outside its core areas, but against that of Ofcom being extended outside its core areas. (Source: here and [...]

Illegal file-sharing: what does the public think?

27 October 2009 , ,
The latest Ofcom survey of internet users in the UK shows that less than half believes downloading shared copies of copyright music and films should be illegal. 42% say it should be illegal, against 33% who believe it shouldn’t be illegal and 25% who don’t know. I’m not aware of comparable figures for other laws, but [...]

Social networking in the UK: Facebook soars, Bebo and MySpace drop

26 October 2009 , , , , ,
Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: The latest Ofcom survey of internet usage is packed full of useful statistics and – even more helpfully – they are based on (a) proper research and (b) people in the UK. Many of the figures quoted are American – or American masquerading as global – and not infrequently are [...]

Party Political Broadcasts: Ofcom proposes some tweaks to the rules

20 September 2009 , ,
You have until 25 November to give Ofcom your views of their proposed amendments to the rules governing Party Political Broadcasts. Ofcom’s rules apply to the commercial outlets that run PPBs – Channels 3, 4 and Five, Classic FM, talkSPORT and Absolute AM. (The BBC and S4C have their own rules.) Aside from some tidying up [...]