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News Three Bengali community TV stations face possibility of closure
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Three Bengali community TV stations face possibility of closure |
Three Bengali community channels face the possibility of closure. Why?
Because the Liberal Democrats used their authority to encourage these
TV stations to break the law.
Jalal Rajonuddin, the Lib Dem candidate for City and East, in
particular, used his position as a respected community leader to
persuade these TV stations to carry adverts promoting his candidacy
and that of Lib Dem mayoral candidate Brian Paddick.
Now these stations face fines of up to £250,000 each, which could ruin them.
Of course the management were foolish and naïve in carrying the
adverts which are strictly forbidden under the Communications Act
2003.
But it seems they accepted Jalal's word that the ads were legal. Jalal
and the Lib Dems need to clarify whether assurances were also given by
the party national headquarters.
Ofcom, the regulator, is likely to come down very hard on them as
political advertising has never before been shown on UK licensed
broadcasters.
"The responsibility for this crisis for these community channels lies
firmly with Jalal and the Liberal Democrats," said Hanif Abdulmuhit,
Respect candidate for City and East, today ahead of a debate with
Jalal on Channel S tonight.
"They surely knew the law on this. The Lib
Dems have never run political adverts before, so why now? Jalal must
come clean. He must tell the whole truth. Did he authorise these
adverts on his own or did he get the thumbs up from Lib Dem HQ?
"Either way he must apologise for jeopardising the future of these
Bengali community stations and he must make a commitment that the Lib
Dems will pay any fines that the broadcasters incur from Ofcom.
"But there is another issue here that has to be addressed. We need
community representatives, including elected representatives, who are
free of personal, criminal and political dishonesty.
"Jalal and the Liberal Democrats have shown that they are politically dishonest in
seeking to get others to break the law on their behalf in order to
give them an unfair advantage in these elections.
"I also believe an election court would remove Jalal in the unlikely
event of his election. Voters should draw the appropriate
conclusions." |
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