2UE fined $360,000 for Laws breaches
Jul 17
Sydney radio station 2UE has been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia to pay a total of $360,000 in penalties for breaches of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
The breaches arose out of broadcasts of The John Laws Morning Show in its last two months on-air in late-2007, where 2UE admitted that it had breached the Commercial Radio Disclosure Standard on 13 occasions. The Standard requires station licencees to declare any existing commercial arrangements between presenters and sponsors.
In September 2007, 2UE, then owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting, gave an enforceable undertaking that it would be monitoring the Laws program to ensure it complied with the Standard and that the station would take any action if adequate disclosures were not made.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) had accepted 2UE’s commitment and in assessing the broadcaster’s compliance with the undertaking it found 13 occasions where further breaches were made.
2UE was taken over by Fairfax Media in November 2007 and had co-operated with ACMA in improving its compliance to its broadcasting obligations.
In November 2008, Fairfax Media and ACMA agreed on penalties that would be presented to the court for its approval in consideration of the breaches. The court was asked to approve an amount of $10,000 for each breach that had been identified and admitted by 2UE.
Taking all into account, including 2UE’s admission of liability and implementation of a new compliance program, the court decided to order 2UE pay penalties of various amounts adding up to $360,000.
Source: ACMA
TelevisionAU July 17th 2009