BBC fined over Brand's prank calls

The BBC was fined £150,000 (€164,000) by British broadcasting regulator Ofcom today following the prank phone calls made by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to Andrew Sachs.

The calls to the 'Fawlty Towers' actor were broadcast last October on Brand’s Radio 2 show.

The regulator said the scale of the fine reflects the “extraordinary” nature and seriousness of the BBC’s failures and the resulting breaches of the Broadcasting Code.

Two episodes of Brand's show breached the Code, broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on October 18 and 25.

Ofcom said the BBC broadcast explicit, intimate and confidential information about Georgina Baillie, Sachs’s granddaughter, in both programmes without their consent.

Ofcom said: “This not only unwarrantably and seriously infringed their privacy but was also gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning.”

Ofcom said broadcasters should be allowed to enjoy the creative freedom to explore issues and ideas without undue interference.

The watchdog said: “Creative risk is part of the BBC’s public service role, however, so is the management of that risk.

“In this case, Ofcom’s investigation revealed that despite the Russell Brand show being considered by the BBC to be ’high risk’ prior to these episodes, the broadcaster had ceded responsibility for managing some of that risk to those working for the presenter, Russell Brand.

“The presenter’s interests had been given greater priority than the BBC’s responsibility to avoid unwarranted infringements of privacy and minimise the risk of harm and offence and to maintain generally accepted standards.”