Jazz FM has been found in breach of Ofcom’s broadcasting code after the transmission of a pornographic soundtrack.
The incident happened during a pre-recorded Saturday evening show, after which three people made official complaints.
The station was found ‘In breach’ of rule 2.3 (generally accepted standards) and cleared of violating rule 1.14 (liklihood of children listening). No financial sanction has been imposed on the digital-only broadcaster.
The noises were aired during the Funky Sensation show on Saturday 18th February at around 7.15pm. The station apologised to listeners for the ‘unauthorised’ interception of its output and broadcast an apology on the following week’s edition of the programme.
Jazz FM said a member of the Jazz FM Presentation team opened a personal email on the studio computer and accessed a weblink containing pornographic content, but by mistake left the sound fader linked to this computer open on the broadcast console. This resulted in the broadcast of the audio of the pornographic content.
1.3 The most offensive language must not be broadcast before the watershed (in the case of television) or when children are particularly likely to be listening (in the case of radio).
2.3 In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context (see meaning of “context” below). Such material may include, but is not limited to, offensive language, violence, sex, sexual violence, humiliation, distress, violation of human dignity, discriminatory treatment or language (for example on the grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religion, beliefs and sexual orientation). Appropriate information should also be broadcast where it would assist in avoiding or minimising offence.
Listen to the audio from the Radiofail website here. WARNING – CONTAINS SEXUAL NOISES AND EXPLICIT SWEAR WORDS