Home Office funded ITV documentary in breach of the sponsorship code, rules Ofcom
 

The UK's broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, has found that a Home Office funded TV documentary was in breach of its rules on sponsorship. Beat: Life on the Street is an observational documentary series covering the work of Police Community Support Officers ('PCSOs') in Oxford and Lancashire. Originally broadcast in 2006, the second series went out on ITV1 between 27th January and 2nd March, 2008. The compliance document was prepared by Channel TV, with the sponsorship being arranged by the Central Office of Information (COI).

Aware of the Home Office's involvement in the series, two members of the public complained that the programmes were effectively "government propaganda", with the Home Office's involvement not made clear to viewers. Promotional Ofcom found that the broadcaster was in breach of Rules 9.5 and 9.7 of its Code. Rule 9.5 states that "there must be no promotional reference to the sponsor, its name, trademark, image, activities, services or products or to any of its other direct or indirect interests. There must be no promotional generic references. Nonpromotional references are permitted only where they are editorially justified and incidental". Ofcom judged that the Home Office had at a minimum an indirect interest in the PCSO service and its personnel which, it said, was evident not only from Channel TV's own submissions, which show that the Home Office's objective for funding the programme was to "improve public awareness of the contribution of PCSOs", but also from material on both the Home Office's PCSO website and from the department's YouTube channel, which includes a promotional video about the PCSO service entitled Beat on Your Street. In the judgement, Ofcom decided that "the overriding tone of the programmes was supportive and likely to leave viewers with a favourable impression of the PCSO service. Taking into account the fact that the Home Office sponsored these series, and that the PCSO     service is at least an indirect interest of the Home Office, Ofcom therefore considered that these references within the programmes were promotional, in breach of Rule 9.5". Rule 9.7 states that "The relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored programme must be transparent". Although it would be clear to viewers that the programme was sponsored, it was not made clear who the sponsor was, said Ofcom in its judgement. Transparent "While a small, inconspicuous Home Office logo was displayed in the top right hand corner of the screen for a very brief period at the end of the sponsor credits", says the report," Ofcom considered that the sponsorship arrangement was not made transparent since the size of its text and the brevity of the logo's appearance on screen meant it was likely to have been missed by viewers". Ofcom ruled that the relationship between the sponsored programme and the Home Office's role as its sponsor was therefore not made transparent to the audience, in breach of Rule 9.7.