Huddersfield Radio Ramadan lands in hot water

Radio Ramadan in Huddersfield has been rapped by Ofcom after it failed to provide a recording to the media regulator for an alleged incident in July 2014.

A listener alerted Ofcom to a broadcast between 17:00 and 20:00 on 22 July 2014, alleging that particular comments that were likely to cause religious offence were made by presenters concerning a forthcoming community radio service in the area.

Ofcom wrote to the Licensee to request a recording of the relevant content. The station did not provide the recording by the deadline specified, and so we reminded it that the recording was outstanding.

In this case, Radio Ramadan failed to provide evidence to demonstrate that it had made a recording of the relevant content, and failed to produce the recording, in breach of Conditions 8(2)(a) and (b) of its licence. These breaches are significant because they resulted in Ofcom being unable to fulfil its statutory duty properly to assess and regulate broadcast content in this case.
This failure will be held on record and taken into account should the Licensee make any future licence applications.