Q & A: Broadcasting Codes
Ofcom has fined Kiss 100 a total of 175,000 pounds for ignoring several of the codes.
Here is an outline of just what codes were broken and what they faced.
Q: What rules did Kiss 100 break?
A: According to Ofcom's broadcasting code, permission must be granted from a person before broadcasting any conversation or interview that may have been recorded. Kiss 100 did not do this when it broadcast the two prank calls and so it broke the 'Fairness and Privacy Code'.
It also included sexual content during a breakfast show, a time when younger people and children may have been listening. As part of the 'Standards breaches', this is an offence as well as using inapproprate language, such as swearing.
Q: What other penalties did Kiss face?
A: The two presenters of the breakfast show were given warnings, and their Bam Bam breakfast show was later terminated. A reshuffle of the management led to the dismissal of the breakfast show's producer and the programme director.
Q: Do Kiss have any preventative methods to stop this from happening again?
A:Emap Radio have now developed a 'traffic light system' to monitor the amount of complaints and the seriousness of them. The system is designed to alert the management of serious complaints so that they can address the problems before it gets any worse.
Emap have added that now that the traffic light system is in place, they will not allow the situation to get to the stage that drove Ofcom to fining them 175,000 pounds again.