Titchmarsh: Ofcom Not To Investigate

You may recall earlier this year on ITV, Alan Titchmarsh had a feature on his program about violence in games. It was horribly one sided and prompted our own Colossal Blue to write to ITV. It appears he was not the only one as ‘The Alan Titchmarsh Show’ is the 5th most complained about program this year, racking up more complaints than Celebrity Big Brother.

The program received 301 complaints in total of which 131 were regarding the item on video games. Sadly an Ofcom spokeswoman said it would not be investigating the issue.  Even worse, the production company seem to think the feature was ‘balanced’. This is a response they sent to one complaint:

Please allow me, first of all, to express my apologies that you were upset by material in the above programme. It is never the intention of the production company or the presenters to cause offence to viewers.

We, at Channel Television, ensure that the show complies with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code (“the Code”), and on this occasion were satisfied that although strong opinions were expressed it was a balanced debate overall.  In addition to adhering to the standards set in the Code we have a responsibility to observe freedom of expression, as laid out in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. We cannot, therefore, censor contributor’s opinions, but can take steps to ensure that other contributors are present to challenge and debate the issues in question.

Again, I am sorry that you were upset by the views expressed. If you wish to take the matter further you may wish to contact our regulator, Ofcom, at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/contactus/

With best wishes, and thanks again for your valuable feedback.

Channel Television

This is a shame but at least we know our complaints were registered and hopefully ITV will act more responsibly in the future.

Source: Daily Telegraph, ITV Forums