Ofcom Discussion

Redhot Mums is currently showing Watersports Wife in which "Madame Gush returns for this one off special in which she demonstrates her unusual talents".

I thought watersports had been informally banned, or is it just a misleading title?

Oh dear, it seems the Deputy Chairman of Ofcom, an independent impartial public organisation, has been making tweets that show clear party political bias. Is this an isolated case or a sign of wider malaise where senior figures have difficulty distinguishing between their personal world view and that of the general public? Mind you, you have to feel sorry for anyone who has Harriet Harman going after them.

Guardian Wrote:Conservative peer Lady Noakes says she will no longer make ‘public comments of a political nature’ after Harriet Harman complained that her tweets showed clear bias.

The deputy chair of the media regulator Ofcom, Conservative peer Lady Noakes, has admitted she was wrong to criticise the Labour party on Twitter after Harriet Harman branded her a Tory “stooge”.

Noakes has said she will refrain from making “public comments of a political nature” after Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, called on culture secretary Sajid Javid to reconsider her appointment. Harman said Noakes’ Twitter account showed “clear breaches” of the regulator’s need for impartiality.

Ofcom chair Patricia Hodgson, in a letter to Javid, said Noakes “acknowledges that the political nature of some comments on her personal Twitter account were not appropriate from someone who is a member of the Ofcom board”.

Hodgson said Noakes would also sell her shares in US telecoms company Verizon, another issue highlighted by Harman, to “ensure absolute transparency” and that there was “no perceived conflict of interest”.

Harman, in a letter to Javid published earlier this week, said Noakes’ Twitter account contained a number of tweets criticising the Labour party and Ed Miliband on issues including the economy, the mansion tax and the proposed televised leaders’ debates.

Full Story

Baroness Noakes has been Ofcom Deputy Chairman since 1 July 2014. She was an accountant for 30 years from about 1970 until 2000, and a member of the House of Lords after that. Her entry on Ofcoms page lists no experience in media, telecoms or post, making her an ideal senior management figure for the regulator of those areas. She hold various business jobs and is deputy chairman of Carpetright.

My colleauge is a Labour County Councillor and spends her entire working day twittering, re-twittering and generally doing sweet fa for her £33k salary. She can post as much political stuff as she wants yet our organisations managers will haul staff over the coals for a bit of banter on Facebook. All depends what party you follow as to how you are censored.

^^^ Different situation, as a Labour councillor, it is expected that she will be political, but Ofcom is meant to be impartial and politically neutral, so its board members are meant to show no bias.

Personally I think that's a bit silly, if you appoint a Conservative peer, she is clearly going to have Conservative views, whether she openly expresses them or not. So long as the board overall is reasonably balanced I don't really see a problem. Nobody is truly 'independant', you get people from different backgrounds with different viewpoints precisely so that you can get a more balanced overall view by taking all those differences into account.
More worrying for me is her involvement with Verizon. This is a major telecoms company, albeit in another country, but given Ofcoms remit over telecoms and mobile bandwidth etc, there is clearly a case for conflict of interest there.

With the announcement that Eurotic TV is to start broadcasting on our SKY EPG which could be as soon as tomorrow night ofcom have now become a European problem. Our foreign cousins who once mocked our ridiculous censorship rules now face the stark reality that ofcom has also honed in their late night adult entertainment.

This war on ofcom has now reached a new audience and from reading the posts on the liveshow forum they are not happy about this at all.

Ofcom hasn't done anything to the rest of Europe. It was Eurotic's choice to come here and abide by our ridiculous rules.

(03-02-2015 09:15 )The Silent Majority Wrote:  Ofcom hasn't done anything to the rest of Europe. It was Eurotic's choice to come here and abide by our ridiculous rules.

Ofcom invaded Poland - haven't you heard?

(03-02-2015 09:15 )The Silent Majority Wrote:  Ofcom hasn't done anything to the rest of Europe. It was Eurotic's choice to come here and abide by our ridiculous rules.

Yes, it was ETV choice to come here and abide by our ridiculous rules, but ETV when talking about the stricter rules they will have to abide to when broadcasting on UK Sky TV are stating this : "Sky's rules today are the rules of all European country's tomorrow".(direct quote from ETV)

I don't think they actually mean Sky themselves dictate the rules, or that Sky will eventually impose stricter rules on other European country's, i think they mean the Ofcom rules they will have to abide with when broadcasting on UK Sky TV will eventually be the rules all European country will have to abide to tomorrow ..
So they seem to be hinting that even if they hadn't decided to broadcast on Sky, that eventually they would have to abide by the same sort of rules has implemented on them by Ofcom when broadcasting on Sky UK TV ..

So do ETV think Ofcom and the UK influence other country's and their regulators concerning TV content ? .

(03-02-2015 12:37 )mr mystery Wrote:  "Sky's rules today are the rules of all European country's tomorrow".(direct quote from ETV)

So do ETV think Ofcom and the UK influence other country's and their regulators concerning TV content ? .

Hmmm.... I'd be more inclined to think they're just trying to deflect some of the flak they're bound to be getting from their European viewers.

^^^ Yes, and to help justify their decision, ie "We're only facing our inevitable fate"...... it won't/hasn't washed, but "nice try" anyway, as they say.
We should be following their lead, not promoting Ofcom....jeez