BBC World News, CNN International and CNBC broke sponsorship rules

BBC World News, CNN International and CNBC repeatedly breached rules on sponsored and free content funded by governments, NGOs and charities, according to a four-year investigation by UK regulator Ofcom.

The international news channels broke the rules on sponsorship and current affairs programming almost 50 times between 2009 and 2011, Ofcom’s report has concluded.

The Ofcom report said that the investigation raised concerns about how “arrangements involving third-party funders carry inherent risk to independence and editorial integrity”. However, it did not find evidence that the broadcasters’ editorial independence had been compromised and noted that the channels had “taken numerous steps to improve transparency and oversight”.

The majority of the breaches concerned Ofcom rules which say that current affairs programmes should not be sponsored, and all other sponsored programming should be clearly labelled.

Ofcom is now set to meet with broadcasters to discuss how to ensure the conflicts do not arise again, and is preparing to publish fresh guidelines on how to approach news and current affairs programming funded by outside companies.

The conflicts first come to light in February 2010 when the BBC Trust was approached by a journalist about a programme on carbon trading which was funded by the Africa Carbon Livelihood, a company which shared a managing director with a company featured in the programme. The information prompted the trust to launch an audit of BBC World News content.

In 2011, the Independent revealed that London-based firm FBC Media, which had provided programmes to both World News and CNBC and had links to CNN, had taken almost £20m from the Malaysian government to promote its interests overseas. Other clients of the company included organisations with links to the Egyptian government.

Both BBC World News and CNN told Ofcom they were not aware of FBC’s contract to promote the Malaysian government, and had sought assurances about its independence from the issues its shows covered.

The Ofcom investigation was its largest to date, covering broadcasts in 200 countries by three TV news channels and involving the assessment of more than 1,000 programmes.

Shows on BBC World News funded by the United Nations, Unesco and the International Diabetes Foundation were all found to be in breach of the rules. The channel is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC and is not supported by the licence fee.

A BBC spokesperson said “The BBC Trust investigated these issues in 2011 and we apologised to viewers on air in February 2012. We introduced a number of changes to our procedures to strengthen the protection of our editorial integrity at the time and a subsequent audit concluded that the measures were robust and working well.

“We accept Ofcom’s findings and wish to re-iterate our commitment to the highest standards of broadcasting.”

CNN International was found to have breached rules requiring it to make audiences aware of the link between a presenter who held a number of senior positions at FBC, John Defterios, and the governments the company worked with. It also broke rules about sponsoring current affairs programming for programmes funded by organisations with links to countries including Macedonia and Georgia.

A CNN spokesperson said: “We welcome Ofcom’s conclusion that the way our programmes were funded did not compromise CNN International’s editorial independence. Ofcom also found that we have been completely transparent with our audience in the labelling of our sponsored content. In addition, it has been established that all CNN International’s content continues to comply with our high standards of impartiality.”

“We do, however, recognise and accept that a very small portion of our sponsored content fell under what Ofcom categorises as current affairs, which under UK regulations may not be sponsored.”

CNBC was found to carried out one breach relating to the impartiality of one of its presenters, another executive of FBC. However, despite FBC paying the broadcaster significant amounts of money to broadcast a number of programmes, Ofcom said it could not conclude its editorial independence had been undermined.