Complaint to Rector leads to radio shutdown

Imperial College Radio (IC Radio) was shut down by the Union last Tuesday evening after a “member of the public” complained to the Rector about the use of racially offensive language during a broadcast. A non-Imperial guest on an IC Radio show referred to a close friend as a “Paki”, which the College and Union say breaks Imperial’s regulations governing media content.

A complaint was received by the Rector’s office sometime on Tuesday and was later forwarded to Union President Alex Kendall at approximately 17:30. It alerted him to the complaint and told him that, because of the seriousness of the complaint, they expected him to take action on the situation immediately.

Kendall said that it was impossible for him to avoid taking serious action, “it broke College policy and it broke the Union’s policy, so we had to do something.” In the Imperial College Union Code of Practice, which is agreed on with the College, it says that “prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s race” must be avoided.

The email from the Rector’s office also referred Kendall to relevant sections of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, which, however, do not apply to IC Radio as it transmits online only.

Station Manager Dan Fowler apologised for the language used, but said that it was clear that the word was used without malice in reference to a close friend. However, he accepted that its use was inappropriate and reminded IC Radio members, in an email on Wednesday, that “things that may seem like ‘banter’ between friends may be taken another way by someone else that is listening in.”

Kendall, along with Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) Heather Jones listened to the relevant parts of the show before taking action and had decided that the word was used “inappropriately.” Kendall said that they understood the context the word was used in but added that “we can’t condone the use of a racist comment.”

Attempts were made to contact senior members of IC Radio as the website was being shutdown but they were unable to reach them. The Union were able to shutdown the website as it is hosted on a Union server, an arrangement required of all Clubs & Societies in the Union’s Web Policy, recently passed in November last term. The Web Policy also permits the President to “suspend indefinitely” a club or society’s website. The policy notes that the Union is “ultimately liable” both legally and to the College for the content on Clubs & Societies’ websites, which Kendall said makes it necessary for the Union to be able to remove potentially offensive content.

When asked why the Union did not remove the recording of the radio show in question, instead of bringing down the whole site, he said that he wanted to be reassured that there wasn’t further offensive content on the site. At a meeting with Dan Fowler on Wednesday he says he was reassured of this and the website was allowed to come back online.

In March 2010 a student radio programme at the University of Glasgow was taken off the air after the presenters “used numerous swear words and explicitly discussed sexual activities.” The entire website, however, was not shut down.

Kendall also added that shutting down the entire website was a strong gesture that signaled “how seriously [the Union] considers racially offensive language.”

The Station Manager Dan Fowler, as well as the person who made the comment and the host of the radio show in question, have personally written to the Rector to apologise for the comments made on air and have asked for those apologies to be passed on to the person who made the complaint.

IC Radio is implementing a new system to ensure that offensive content is not uploaded to the website. Radio hosts will be asked to manually upload their shows, currently it is automatic, and to confirm before doing so that it doesn’t contain anything “dodgy”. Fowler reminded IC Radio members to use their “common sense” when broadcasting.

No further disciplinary action is being taken. IC Radio’s listening figures are not believed to have been affected by the shutdown...

Editorial