ADVERTS deemed ‘political’ have resulted in three Aberdeen-based stations being found to have breached broadcasting regulations.
Say broadcasting regulators, Ofcom, the trio – Northsound 1, its sister station, Northsound 2, and Original 106 – were each in breach for running adverts about a proposed redevelopment of gardens in the city centre.
The redevelopment was put to local people in a referendum and on Northsound 1 and 2, it carried adverts both for and against, while Original ran the adverts in favour.
In their defence, the stations said they had considered the adverts were about a civic rather than a political issue, but Ofcom said it found sufficient grounds to have the adverts deemed ‘political’.
Ofcom received four complaints about them.
In a separate judgment, Ofcom said Northsound 1 had also breached a regulation about the accuracy of competitions. It followed the station belatedly finding out that a competition it had run, arranged via a third party, was not for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest but the dress rehearsal, instead. Ofcom says the winner accepted £1,000 in compensation, in addition to the prize on offer.
