Office of Communications in the United Kingdom, popularly known as Ofcom, on Wednesday, fined a religious television channel, Loveworld, owned by Nigerian Pastor, Chris Oyakhilome, £125,000 (N65.6m).
In a statement, Ofcom said that it imposed the fine on Oyakhilome’s TV the station for breaching the country’s broadcasting code by disseminating misinformation on COVID-19.
According to the statement, “Today we have fined Loveworld £125,000 for this breach of the broadcasting code. This was the second time in a year that the broadcaster breached our rules on accuracy in news and harm in its coverage of the coronavirus.”
On December 1 2020, Loveworld aired a 29-hour programme called the Global Day of Prayer, during which Oyakhilome made claims about the COVID-19.
The UK agency said these claims included the notion that the outbreak was ‘planned’, that the ‘sinister’ vaccine can be used to implant ‘nanochips’ that can control and cause harm to members of the public and the debunked theory that the virus was somehow caused by 5G.
Ofcom said it’s unfortunate that the station could continue to spread such information while ignoring previous warnings.
The agency’s statement added, “Ofcom stresses that legitimate debate about the official response to the coronavirus pandemic is fundamental to holding public authorities to account during a global health crisis - particularly when public freedoms are curtailed and complex policy decisions are being taken.
“However, the inaccurate and potentially harmful claims made during this programme were unsupported by any factual evidence and went entirely without challenge. Ofcom was particularly concerned that this breach followed previous, similar breaches in 2020 during the investigation of which, Loveworld Limited gave Ofcom a number of assurances as to how it would improve its compliance procedures.”
The Christ Embassy Church with headquarters in Lagos and headed by Oyakhilome, has in the last one year encouraged its members to ignore COVID-19 protocols.
Oyakhilome warned his members against receiving COVID-19 vaccines.