BA gives MLP right of reply and fines several programmes

The Broadcasting Authority has upheld the Labour party's complaint for the right of reply and ordered the Public Broadcasting Services to broadcast the MLP's reaction to the appointment of the new Cabinet at the Prime Minister's news conference on March 23.

PBS has been ordered to include the reaction to the Prime Minister's press conference last month in Tuesday's main news bulletin at 8 p.m.

The authority also ordered that a summary of its decision be read out before the broadcast.

While the PM's news conference news value to be broadcast live was accepted by the BA, the contents proved to be politically controversial, which required the station to get an immediate reaction from those with differing political beliefs, the BA's statement said.

The Broadcasting Authority also released a list of radio and television programmes which its chief executive brought to the attention of the authority for deliberation on contraventions to BA regulations.

A number of complaints were upheld and a Lm400 fine was imposed on two television stations and one television programme after it found that they failed to observe parts of the Broadcasting Act.

Among these the programme on TVM, Xarabank, was fined Lm400 for "deceitful" advertising on its edition aired on March 19.

However, the BA release does not give any details on what constituted "deceitful advertising".

Net TV was also slammed with the same fine after a morning repetition of the programme Red carried adverts of alcohol consumption at times when children could be watching.

According to the guidelines, no such adverts should appear before 7 p.m. and, since the station failed to remove it from the repeat on February 25, it was found guilty of an administrative offence.

Smash TV was also fined Lm400 for surpassing the stipulated 12-minute allocation of advertising for every hour, on February 16.