Tobi Adebayo
United Kingdom’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) has fined a religious channel, Loveworld, owned by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, over a sermon on COVID-19.
According to a statement by the agency, Loveworld was sanctioned for breaching UK’s broadcasting code by disseminating misinformation on the coronavirus disease.
“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.
“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 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.
Lagos Guber ’23 Debate criminal, sabotage, diversionary, Olokoba warns
“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 statement read in part.
Earlier, Oyakhilome had berated Christians for receiving jabs of the COVID-19 vaccine, saying their “faith in God was wavering.”
