Ofcom has imposed a £40,000 fine on Up and Coming TV Limited (“Up and Coming TV”) after our investigation (PDF, 543.1 KB) found the service it broadcast had failed to comply with our broadcasting rules.
On 5 and 6 May 2020, Up and Coming TV broadcast two consecutive editions of Nadim Malik Live, a current affairs discussion programme
In our Decision published on 7 March 2022 in Issue 446 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin (PDF, 543.1 KB), Ofcom found that statements in both these programmes amounted to anti‑Ahmadi hate speech, and derogatory and abusive treatment of Ahmadi people, and statements in the programme of 5 May 2020 amounted to antisemitic hate speech, and derogatory and abusive treatment of Jewish people, which was not sufficiently justified by the context. We also found that this content was, therefore, potentially highly offensive, and that the programmes had breached Rules 3.2, 3.3 and 2.3 of the Broadcasting Code.
Up and Coming TV had named the service on which it broadcast this content “Samaa TV”, reflecting the name of the content provider in Pakistan from which it used to source the material it broadcast. It subsequently changed the name of its service on 1 August 2021 to Neo News, to reflect the fact it had changed content provider. On 8 August 2022, the Licensee stated its intention to surrender its broadcast licence and, at the time of writing, it is not broadcasting. Ofcom has imposed a sanction on the Licensee of a financial penalty of £40,000, and, conditionally on the Licensee holding its licence and resuming broadcasting, a direction to broadcast a statement of Ofcom’s findings on a date and in a form to be determined by Ofcom and a direction not to repeat the programme.