Ofcom, United Kingdom broadcasting regulation company, has sanctioned Loveworld Television Network, a broadcast station belonging to Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, for comments by Oyakhilome that goes against their regulations.
Ofcom said the comment by Oyakhilome has the tendency of harming the people.
Ofcom accused Oyakhilome of making unverified statement linking 5G and coronavirus and also claiming that the drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
Ofcom said it received a complaint that a news report from South Africa included inaccurate and unchallenged statements about the Coronavirus pandemic, alleging links to 5G technology.
“When assessing the programme, Ofcom identified an additional news item that included claims about the drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19 (the disease caused by the Coronavirus).”
The regulation company said it has imposed a sanction on the broadcaster.
“Your Loveworld featured potentially harmful statements about the Coronavirus pandemic and adequate protection was not provided to viewers. In breach of Rule 2.1 of the Broadcasting Code.
“We have imposed a sanction on the broadcaster, requiring it to broadcast statements of our findings. We are considering whether to impose any further sanction,” Ofcom says.
Ofcom held that Pastor Oyakhilome violated Rules 2.1 and 5.1 of the Broadcasting Code.
Responding to Ofcom, Loveworld News said it was “in full observance of all precautions to be taken in order not to breach the code and without any goal to cause any form of harm to the public”.
It added that the programme’s news coverage “manifests its Christian orientation and background” and that Loveworld Television Network “is a Christian broadcast station and communicates its views based on the foresight of Scriptures”.
It said that its news was presented “from a balanced Christian viewpoint” and that it “openly requested for everyone else to carry out their independent fact findings”.
The Licensee expressed its hope that Ofcom’s investigation “does not lead to the suppression of our contrary opinion based on our Christian faith and beliefs”.
Loveworld added that it accepted “in all the circumstances that the broadcast…could have provided better protection for members of the public” and “recognise[d] the importance of complying with the Code, particularly in the current acute circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
However, the UK’s position on the use of the medicine in the treatment of COVID-19 at the time was that “no conclusions have been reached on the safety and effectiveness of this medicine to treat or prevent COVID-19” and until “clear, definitive evidence that [hydroxychloroquine is] safe and effective for the treatment of COVID-19, it should only be used for this purpose within a clinical trial”.
“We did not consider that it was duly accurate, at the time of broadcast, to describe hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” or “proven” as opposed to a candidate drug which was being tested,” Ofcom said.
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