Salaam Radio rapped by Ofcom for elections coverage
Peterborough based community station, Salaam Radio has been found in breach of Ofcom regulations over its elections output last year – April 2023.
Ofcom received a complaint that Ansar Ali, the presenter of the programme on 15th April 2023 was standing as a candidate in the Peterborough city council elections. Ofcom considered that the election period for the English local elections on 4th May 2023 started on 27th March 2023 as per its published Note to Broadcasters on Election programming.
In response to Ofcom’s initial request for information, Salaam Radio confirmed that the presenter Ansar Ali did stand as a candidate in these elections.
Related to this
.
.
Ofcom revokes two licences of MATV
Salaam Radio said that it did not know the exact date on which Ali submitted their nomination papers. As the programme took place after the closing date for nominations for the Peterborough city council wards on 5th April 2023, Ofcom considered that the presenter was therefore standing nominated as a candidate for the election at the time of the broadcasts.
Ofcom therefore considered and found in breach of rule 6.6 in the Ofcom broadcast rules.
