Western Performers Banned in China

Ofcom have fined the BBC £150,000 over the Sachsgate row, describing the Radio 2 broadcast of messages left by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand on actor Andrew Sachs's voicemail as gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning.

The TV censor said the scale of the fine reflected the extraordinary nature and seriousness of the BBC's failures and the resulting breaches of the broadcasting code.

Ofcom said the corporation had broadcast explicit, intimate and confidential information about Sachs's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, without her consent in Brand's Radio 2 programmes that aired on 18 October and 25 October last year.

This not only unwarrantably and seriously infringed their privacy but was also gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning, Ofcom said.

The media regulator said it had imposed a fine of £70,000 for breaches of the broadcasting code on standards and over the Radio 2 broadcast of offensive material, and a further £80,000 for the unwarranted infringement of Sachs's and Baillie's privacy.

Ofcom said that despite the BBC considering Brand's show to be high risk, it had ceded responsibility for some of management of the programme to people working for the comedian. The presenter's interests had been given greater priority than the BBC's responsibility to avoid unwarranted infringements of privacy and minimise the risk of harm and offence and to maintain generally accepted standards, the Ofcom report said.

It doesn't seem fair that the tax payer  should pay for your husband's porn. Better if Jonathan Ross pays.

Senior government expense account holders have backed demands for Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to pay the £150,000 fine imposed on the BBC for their antics.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell all added their voices to the outcry.

There is outrage that the licence-fee payer will have to meet the fine imposed on Friday by the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom.

There are also calls for Brand's production company Vanity Projects, which produced the broadcast, to pay at least some of the money.

Straw, the most senior expense account holder to have spoken out about the fine, said the performers should pay out of their own pockets. It is wrong that licence-fee payers will have to pick up the bill for this. It is ridiculous that the penalty will be paid by the public.

Jowell, the former Culture Secretary, added: I think it would be honourable for Jonathan Ross to offer to pay it himself.

Miss Blears told the BBC's Any Questions: The BBC is funded by all of us as licence-payers, so are we having to pay the fine? Maybe Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand should pay it … that might be quite a good idea.

The BBC has said the money for the fine will come out of its general budget.

An Ofcom spokesman said: Parliament decided for very serious breaches of our broadcasting rules the BBC would be subject to a maximum fine of £250,000. These powers only allow for fines to be levied against the BBC and not individuals. 'To do so would require a change in the law.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture has refused permission for Bob Dylan to play his scheduled dates in Shanghai and Beijing this month, the Guardian reports.

This has led to the cancelling of shows in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

According to promoter Jeffrey Wu, Chinese officials have become more cautious since Bjork, the Icelandic singer, chanted 'Tibet! Tibet!' after performing a song called Declare Independence in Shanghai in 2008.

Jeffrey Wu, of Taiwanese promoters Brokers Brothers Herald, said that What Bjork did definitely made life very difficult for other performers. They are very wary of what will be said by performers on stage now.

Singer Bob Dylan has denied accusations that he had bowed to censorship during his first concerts in China last month. Dylan was criticised by Western media and by Human Rights Watch for not performing some of his best-known protest songs on his China tour in April.

In a rare online posting, Dylan said Chinese authorities asked for the names of the songs he would play in their country.

Dylan said he sent Chinese officials his set lists from the previous three months of shows. He performed in Beijing on 6 April and Shanghai two days later.

If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play, Dylan wrote in the post.

Media commentators cited the absence of songs The Times They Are A-Changin' and Blowin' in the Wind from Dylan's China set list as evidence that the counter- culture hero had caved to pressure.

In March, China's Culture Ministry said in a brief statement that an agreement to have Dylan sing in the country came with the proviso that he perform the approved content.