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Radio Caroline Falsely Reports King Charles III Is Dead
A pre-recorded obituary for King Charles III was broadcast in May, followed by the national anthem and 16 minutes of silence. Ofcom has now ruled that the station breached broadcasting rules
Radio Caroline falsely reports King Charles III is dead, broadcasting a series of pre-recorded announcements declaring the monarch’s death before correcting the report nearly 30 minutes later.
The incident occurred on May 19 during the Barry Marsh Show on the Essex-based station. Three recorded messages were broadcast announcing the death of King Charles III.
“We have suspended our normal programming until further announcements as a mark of respect following the death of His Majesty King Charles III,” the recording stated.
The announcement was followed by the national anthem and approximately 16 minutes of silence.
It was not until almost half an hour later that the station issued a correction. A presenter told listeners that he had just been informed that some information had been broadcast by mistake. He said he had not personally heard the announcements but confirmed that they were incorrect, describing the incident as a technical problem and apologizing.
An investigation by Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has now established what happened. The authority received two complaints about the broadcast and found that Radio Caroline had breached Rule 5.1, which requires news to be reported accurately and impartially, as well as Rule 5.2, which requires significant errors in news programming to be acknowledged and corrected promptly on air.
Ofcom described the incident as “a very significant error on a matter of particular public importance.” The regulator also noted that Radio Caroline did not broadcast an apology and clarification until approximately 30 minutes after the erroneous announcements were first aired.
The investigation found that the station’s license holder was monitoring the broadcast when the incident occurred. A technician was already aware that there was a problem, but it took time to establish what had happened and restore the scheduled programming.
The situation was further complicated because the presenter was broadcasting the program remotely via streaming. According to Ofcom’s reconstruction, once the presenter realized what had happened, he stopped the playback of the offending files and, apparently in a panic, left the studio.
There was another element to the incident. The pre-recorded obituary files were accompanied by “a series of strict instructions for presenters and managers,” specifying the circumstances in which they could be used.
A member of the station’s staff nevertheless became curious and clicked on the files, triggering the broadcast.
Radio Caroline said it took the incident “very seriously” and acted “as soon as possible.” The station said the staff member who played the files was reprimanded and apologized.
To prevent a similar incident from occurring again, the obituary files were subsequently removed from the studio computer.
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