Committee publication · Correspondence · 8 September 2025
Letter, dated 1 August 2025, from Melanie Dawes, Chief Executive, Ofcom, with original letter from Mr Speaker, dated 21 July 2025
From: Speaker's Conference (2024)
Inquiry: Speaker’s Conference on the security of candidates, MPs and elections
Summary
Melanie Dawes, Ofcom Chief Executive, responds to Speaker's Conference questions about journalistic practices involving MPs, candidates, and their families. Ofcom explains its Broadcasting Code Section Eight (Privacy), which requires infringements of privacy to be warranted and proportionate. Ofcom clarifies it regulates broadcast content only, not print or online journalism, and that doorstepping is permissible if prior interview requests are refused or investigation might be frustrated.
Key findings
- Ofcom regulates broadcasting only; behaviour in obtaining material (approach to individuals/families) is not Ofcom's concern unless broadcast material results, making press regulation outside its remit.
- Section Eight of Broadcasting Code requires any privacy infringement to be warranted, with broadcasters able to demonstrate public interest outweighs privacy rights (e.g., detecting crime, protecting public health, exposing incompetence).
- Doorstepping is permitted under Section 8.11 where interview requests are refused, interview cannot be requested, or good reason exists to believe investigation will be frustrated—and must be warranted in all circumstances.
- Proportionality is key: means of obtaining material must be proportionate to subject matter; privacy least likely infringed in public places, though some private spaces may still permit expectation of privacy.
- Ofcom balances individual privacy rights against broadcaster freedom of expression and audience right to information; neither has precedence; specific facts of each case determine breach findings.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Dame Melanie Dawes, Rt Hon. Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Ofcom, Speaker's Conference Committee, BBC, Public Service Broadcasters
Notable line
“… any infringement of privacy must be warranted and makes clear that 'warranted' has a particular meaning.”
Key Quotes
“Section Eight requires that any infringement of privacy must be warranted and makes clear that 'warranted' has a particular meaning. Where broadcasters wish to justify an infringement of privacy, they should be able to demonstrate why in the particular circumstances, it is warranted.”
“Doorstepping for factual programmes should not take place unless a request for an interview has been refused or it has not been possible to request an interview, or there is good reason to believe that an investigation will be frustrated if the subject is approached openly, and it is warranted to doorstep.”
“Ofcom considers post-broadcast complaints from individuals and/or organisations who appear in programmes, or have been referred to in programmes, in a way that they consider infringes their privacy. As the broadcast regulator, we have no remit to consider infringement of privacy in other forms of media, for example newspaper and online news articles.”
“Ofcom will balance the individual's right to privacy against the competing right of the broadcaster to freedom of expression and the audience's right to receive ideas and information without undue interference.”
“The means of obtaining material must be proportionate in all the circumstances and in particular to the subject matter of the programme.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗