Daystar may lose its UK broadcasting licence

The only Christian TV channel on the Freeview platform - Daystar Television Network - risks losing its broadcasting licence in the UK for failing to submit their "Relative Turnover" returns to OFCOM. These are used to asses the level of licence fee to be charged. The most likely outcome is a fine, but revocation of the licence is noted as an option:

As a consequence of this serious and continuing
licence breach, Ofcom is putting these licensees on notice that their present
contravention of their licences is being considered for the imposition of a
statutory sanction, including licence revocation.

Other channels are listed as in breach. Genesis TV is listed as not in breach, but having been late in providing accounts. Genesis was previously on Sky EPG channel 592 which is now KICC TV.

Full details in the OFCOM Broadcast Bulletin of 9th July 2012 here (PDF file).

Christian TV channel fined £25,000 for healing claims

Christian TV channel Believe TV has been fined £25,000 by OFCOM for

In Ofcom's finding published on 22 August 2011 in Broadcast Bulletin 188
Ofcom  found that a number of programmes and pieces of content broadcast by the Licensee
had the potential for harm, because some viewers with serious illnesses – especially
more vulnerable ones – may not seek, or may abandon existing, conventional
medical treatment on the basis of what they have seen on Believe TV. 

OFCOM decided to act because of the repeated nature of the incidents which included claims to be able to cure cancer.

The original complaints can be found here:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/enforcement/broadcast-bulletins/obb188/obb188.pdf

and includes this:

A cancer healing “testimony” was made by a woman who had attended a healing by
Pastor Alex Omokudu at the Victorious Pentecostal Assembly (VPA). She said she
had originally collapsed with “a tumour in her head”. Her relative, standing at her
side, explained that after the woman with the tumour left hospital she went to the
VPA and “purchased” Ribena (allegedly representing the blood of Christ) and “oil”.
Her relative explained that the woman with the tumour stopped taking her medication
for seizures, continued to take Ribena, and that when she went for a scan she was
told “there wasn’t a problem”

The full judgement is here:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/enforcement/broadcast-bulletins/obb200/obb200.pdf

It will be interesting to see whether Christian pressure groups view this as an attack on Christianity or welcome it as a protection for the vulnerable.

Cognitive dissonance in evangelical Christian reporting of attacks on Christians in Egypt.

As the BBC reports the deaths of 24 Coptic Christians in Egypt I am left speculating how long it will be before fundamentalist evangelicals try to have their cake and eat it. On the one hand they will want to portray events in Egypt as Christians being persecuted by Muslims, but at the same time they will be discomfited by knowing that they don't consider the Coptic Church to be Christian. Lets face it. We all know that if one of these Egyptian Christians walked into an evangelical church on a Sunday they would not be welcomed as brothers in Christ, they would be a target for conversion from their ungodly faith. The same is true of Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic Christians.

This is a regular problem for evangelical commentators reporting in events from the middle east and is something that social psychologists refer to as "cognitive dissonance". Interestingly the term was originally coined to explain changes in religious belief:

Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. The phrase was coined by Leon Festinger in his 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, which chronicled the followers of a UFO cult as reality clashed with their fervent beliefs. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology. (source: Wikipedia)

It will be interesting to track how this story gets reported by Fundamentalist commentators. At time of writing Pat Robertson's CBN has made no comment, deciding to carry a verbatim copy of the AP article. It may be too early for the US media to have picked up the story.

How the British tax payer is funding Televangelists

The three largest UK based Christian television networks are all funded from donations from viewers and supporters. These are channelled into them through registered charities which the channels have set up for this purpose.

By running as registered charities these organisations receive a number of benefits that amount to taxpayer funding of their operations, which includes evangelism and in some cases campaigning against evolution and environmental concerns like global warming.

The benefits that Christian TV channels receive from the taxpayer through their charitable status include:

• the ability to reclaim tax on donations given by individuals through Gift Aid.
• business rates relief for any buildings they are using.
• exemption from paying corporation tax on their profits (surpluses)

The value of these to the organisations is difficult to determine in full, but Gift Aid alone can amount to a substantial part of their income.

Gift AID is a reclaim of tax from the government on donations made by UK tax payers. I have examined the accounts of three UK based Christian Television networks to try and estimate how much they are earning from Gift Aid. One (UCB) state explicitly in their annual accounts how much they receive in Gift Aid. The others I have estimated.

At least two of these channels (God TV and Revelation & Genesis TV) are not in the mainstream of the Christian religion and speak out against evolution and environmental concerns.


Channel: UCB TV and various radio channels
Charity: UNITED CHRISTIAN BROADCASTERS LIMITED, Registered Charity 299128

A staggering 16.3% of their donated income came from the government through the Gift Aid scheme - a total of £859,000 in state funding.

From their Accounts for year ended 31st December 2007
Total Income £6,819,108
Total income from donations £5 241 108
Total gift aid (according to their annual report @ 16.3% confirmed) £859,000



Channel: GOD TV and GOD TV EUROPE
Charity: THE ANGEL FOUNDATION, Registered Charity 1079501

God TV is not regulated by OFCOM. It operates under a foreign broadcasting licence and is outside OFCOM regulation allowing them to use fundraising techniques which would probably not be permitted if they were under a UK licence.

We do not know how much they are receiving in Gift Aid donations as they do not separate it out in their annual accounts. However, if we conservatively estimate it at 10% then it would mean they received at least £1M per year from the government to fund their operations. The figure could be much higher.


From their Accounts for year ended 31st March 2008

Total Income £12,174,673
Total income from donations £11,166,574
Estimated gift aid @ 10% of donated income £1,116,657
Estimated gift aid @ 15% of donated income £1,674,961



Channel: REVELATION TV and GENESIS TV
Charity: REVELATION FOUNDATION, Registered Charity 1100573

We do not know how much they are receiving in Gift Aid donations as they do not separate it out in their annual accounts. However, if we conservatively estimate it at 10% then it means they are receiving at least £167,000 from the government to fund their operations.

From their Accounts for year ended 31st March 2008

Total Income £1,740,988
Income from Donations £1,677,136
Estimated gift aid @ 10% of donated income £167,713
Estimated gift aid @ 15% of donated income £251,570


Issues this raises

Should taxpayers money be going to fund religious broadcasting organisations whose principal aims are evangelism?

If the government is to continue funding organisations like this, should this not be conditional on them operating under UK broadcast licences so they are regulated by OFCOM? For example, God TV gets money from the UK government but does not have to abide by UK broadcasting restrictions. This means they can use fundraising techniques which would be dubious under UK broadcasting regulations, but still get Gift Aid on those donations from tax payers.


The other side of the coin

It could be claimed that Gift Aid us a reclaim of the tax the donors have paid on their earnings, but the reclaim is at a notional "blended rate" which may be more than the donor has paid in tax. If the money was not given to them by the government then the government could spend it on things that would benefit the wider community.


Changes to charity law in the UK

The Charities Commission has recently published new guidance to charities that they must be able to show "public benefit". Its not clear how they will apply this to existing charities, but it will be interesting to see how religious charities and in particular Christian television stations will be able to prove a public benefit when they have such narrow sectarian aims and objectives. I suspect they will get round it by having very broad aims in their charity memorandum and articles of association, but in reality pass the vast majority of the funds raised straight to the TV channels they are operating.