The Office of Communications in the United
Kingdom better known as Ofcom, has sanctioned religious channel, Loveworld,
owned by Nigerian Pastor, Chris Oyakhilome.
Ofcom said in a statement that the station
was fined £125,000 (N65.6m) for breaching the country’s broadcasting code by
disseminating misinformation on COVID-19.
On December 1 2020, Loveworld aired a
29-hour programme called the Global Day of Prayer, during which claims were
made about the COVID-19.
According to the agency, 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.
The station said it was unfortunate that
the station could continue to spread such information despite previous
warnings.
The statement further read, “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.
“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.”
Oyakhilome, who heads Christ Embassy church
headquartered in Lagos, has in the last one year encouraged his members to
ignore COVID-19 protocols.
He recently asked his members not to take COVID-19 vaccines.
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