ARY Digital rapped by Ofcom for provision of recordings

ARY Digital has been rapped by Ofcom for not supplying tapes of recording on request of the media regulator last year.

In August, a viewer informed Ofcom that it was concerned about a particular show ARY News had carried which incited racial hatred. Ofcom received a recording of the material from the channel but had such poor audio quality that Ofcom was unable to assess the material as broadcast.

Similarly in October, a viewer alerted Ofcom again after ARY Digital allegedly ran misleading information regarding personal grooming products. However on this occasion, ARY Network was unable to supply a recording because of a fault with recording equipment.

In Ofcom’s regulation, all broadcasters must retain or arrange for the retention of a recording in sound and vision of every licensed service for a period of 60 days from the date of its inclusion therein.

ARY Network said it “always provide quality recording[s] to Ofcom as and when required.” However, it apologised for the quality of the recording of the broadcast on 2nd August and said that it had asked its technical team “to look into this issue and rectify it at earliest.” No further response was received from the Licensee.

ARY Network also explained that a technical malfunction had affected its recording systems for 20th October, and that while the issue had been rectified, it was unable to provide a recording for the date complained of.

Ofcom concluded that these failures by ARY Network to meet the requirements of Condition 11 are serious and significant breaches of ARY Network?s Ltd licence because they resulted in Ofcom being unable to fulfil its statutory duty properly to assess and regulate broadcast content in this case. Ofcom has put ARY Network on notice that if there are any further breaches of Condition 11 concerning services whose licences are held by ARY Network Ltd, Ofcom will consider further regulatory action.