Radio station LBC has received a warning from the broadcasting regulator following an investigation into a comment by a presenter telling listeners to assault striking London Underground staff.
Steve Allen, described on LBC’s website as having a “caustic tongue”, made the comment during his phone-in show on 4 August when a listener complained about the strike by tube workers.
Allen said: “I think we should go round and start beating up tube people, the people that bring them all out on strike.”
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, more commonly known as the RMT, lodged a complaint with Ofcom that the comment was “likely to encourage violent and criminal behaviour”.
Ofcom launched an investigation into whether Allen’s comment was likely to encourage or incite crime.
The investigation found that Allen’s comments would not have been interpreted by listeners as “serious encouragement”, and therefore did not breach the broadcasting code.
However, Ofcom added a warning, reminding LBC to take care about allowing presenters to make inflammatory comments.
“After carefully investigating the RMT’s complaint, we concluded that Steve Allen’s comments were unlikely to have been understood by his listeners, who are familiar with the programme’s established style, as a serious encouragement to commit violent or criminal behaviour,” said a spokeswoman for Ofcom. “However, we have reminded LBC that it must take care when making potentially inflammatory remarks, particularly around developing news events.”
