Ofcom has told TalkTV to take extra care to ensure that comments which have high risk of causing serious offence are justified and put into proper context.It follows an assessment by the regultator into comments made by presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer during an interview with Dr Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, which prompted 15,000 complaints.“This was a finely balanced decision. We consider that Ms Hartley-Brewer’s comments towards Dr Barghouti had the potential to be highly offensive to viewers. But taking into account a number of contextual factors – including the brevity of the remarks and audience expectations of this presenter and programme, which often features provocative viewpoints – we have decided not to formally investigate,” the regulator said in a statement.“While TalkTV’s position is that Ms Hartley-Brewer’s comments were not motivated by Dr Barghouti’s religion or ethnicity, we recognise that many complainants understood them to be so. Given this, the comments had the potential to be highly offensive to viewers, irrespective of the intent of the presenter.”The directive from the regulator could be partially academic, given that last month Talk TV is to drop its linear TV channels and will maintain an online presence only.The radio station TalkRadio that spun out the TV service will continue where similar rules from Ofcom’s broadcasting codes apply.
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