Complaint
This edition featured a sequence in which the presenter encouraged callers to honk their car horns to see if there was a response from other drivers. 听A listener complained this was irresponsible and in breach of the Highway Code. 听The ECU assessed whether the broadcast met the 麻豆官网首页入口鈥檚 standards, as set out in the Editorial Guidelines and elsewhere. 听
Outcome
There is no specific provision within the Guidelines for this kind of incident. 听The ECU therefore considered the complaint against the wider obligation of the 麻豆官网首页入口 to stay within established rules and the law unless there are good editorial reasons not to do so.听 In the sequence concerned, Scott Mills talked to a member of the Radio 2 Breakfast show team and then to a listener. 听Both were driving, separately, to the Glastonbury Festival. 听He suggested they honk their car horns to see how many other drivers nearby were Radio 2 listeners, which they did. The injunction to blow the horn was limited to those particular drivers and the cars immediately around them. 听Use of a car horn is only permissible under very limited circumstances and in the ECU鈥檚 view the programme encouraged a potential breach of the Highway Code unjustified by the Show鈥檚 editorial content
Upheld
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio, who have drawn the provisions of the Highway Code to the programme team鈥檚 attention