Ofcom has today imposed a £150,000 financial penalty on religious channel, The Word Network, for breaking broadcasting rules.
Ofcom’s investigation found that two episodes of the Peter Popoff Ministries contained potentially harmful claims that contacting the presenter’s ministry or ordering its “Miracle Spring Water” could improve serious health conditions and financial situations.
We concluded that the Word Network broke broadcasting rules as it failed to adequately protect views from harm, exploited the vulnerabilities of the audience and promoted products in the programme.
Given the seriousness nature of this breach, Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty of £150,000 on The Word Network, which will be passed on to HM Treasury. We have also directed it not to repeat the programmes and to broadcast a statement of our findings against it, on a date and in a form to be determined by us.