UK radio station censured over Covid conspiracy theories

A community radio station which broadcast a two-hour discussion of baseless coronavirus conspiracy theories, including the claim that the crisis is an orchestrated “plan-demic” linked to the rollout of 5G, has been sanctioned by the broadcasting regulator.

In a report on New Style Radio, a Birmingham-based station which caters to African-Caribbean communities, Ofcom found that a programme presented by Simon Solomon, “had the potential to cause significant harm to listeners” and set out “a number of highly contentious, unevidenced conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, without sufficient challenge or context”.

Among many other false claims made during The Family Programme on 1 November, the watchdog, which was responding to a listener’s complaint, highlighted suggestions that wearing facemasks can “cause serious neurological and respiratory damage”, that children were being put at risk, and that Bill Gates and Boris Johnson wanted to reduce the world population.

During the broadcast, Solomon, who has been presenting the show for 18 years, asserted that there were “a host of people now speaking out against this so-called pandemic: countless physicians, doctors, medical people. Certainly, asserting the position, the position that this is not a pandemic, probably very much so a plan-demic”.

He also said: “This information is really being shared on the basis that it will hopefully give you some insight into the plans of certain peoples across this beautiful planet to decrease the population.”

Citing discredited claims from the conspiracy theorist Claire Edwards, he said that the coronavirus crisis “appears to be nothing more than a plan by these people, and I’ll be accused of creating conspiracy theories now … a plan by these people to decrease the world population. But you know the evidence is there.” And he said that Johnson and his father, Stanley, “had been speaking, you know, over a decade ago about reducing the world population”.

In responding to Ofcom, Solomon acknowledged that the programme broke the regulator’s rules but stood by the substance of his claims. He said that his broadcast constituted scrutiny of the government and was “more than justified”, noting the disproportionate number of deaths in ethnic minority communities.

New Style Radio, however, said that it “wholeheartedly accepted [Ofcom’s] analysis and conclusions” and had subsequently broadcast another programme in the same time slot, which set out the views of genuine experts on the pandemic in order to “comprehensively refute all the conspiracy theories” of the initial broadcast.

Noting that Solomon was “experienced” and “knowledgable”, it said it “could not have possibly … envisaged” him presenting the show in such a way. It said it had done “as much as any licensee could be reasonably expected to do to prevent the breach in the first place and subsequently to ensure that there is no repetition of such a breach”.

After Ofcom concluded that New Style Radio had committed a serious breach of the broadcasting code and was potentially harmful for listeners, it ordered the station to broadcast a summary of its ruling. It is still considering whether to impose a fine.

Asked whether Solomon would continue to be a presenter on the station, a spokesperson said that it would await a final verdict on sanctions from Ofcom before making a decision.

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