“King Charles is dead.” A radio station broadcast a false announcement claiming the death of King Charles III and did not correct it for nearly half an hour. Three months after the high-profile mistake by a UK broadcaster, the communications regulator Ofcom has clarified what actually went wrong. The incident dates back to 19 May: Radio Caroline, an Essex-based station, played three pre-recorded messages during the Barry Marsh Show announcing the death of King Charles III: “We have suspended our normal programming until further notice as a mark of respect following the death of His Majesty King Charles III.” The announcement was followed by the national anthem and about 16 minutes of silence. Almost half an hour later a presenter corrected the record, saying: “I have just been told that a short while ago we broadcast some information by mistake. I didn’t hear it myself, but it is incorrect, it is a technical problem and of course we apologise.” According to Ofcom’s reconstruction, the presenter appears to have stopped the playback of the offending files and, in a state of panic, left the studio.
Ofcom said it received two complaints about the broadcast and found breaches of rule 5.1, which requires news to be reported accurately and impartially, and rule 5.2, which requires errors in news coverage to be highlighted and corrected on air promptly. “We judged this to be a very significant error on a matter of particular public importance. Radio Caroline did not broadcast apologies and clarifications until about 30 minutes after the initial airing of the erroneous announcements,” the regulator concluded.
Chain of errors
How could such a mistake happen? “The licence holder was monitoring the broadcast at the time of the incident, a technician was already aware of the problem but it took time to establish what had happened and to restore the planned programming. The situation was compounded by the fact that the presenter was streaming the show remotely.” In short, a disaster. Clear now? Not quite — one detail was still missing.
The curious technician
The station provided an additional explanation in its records. The files containing pre-recorded obituaries were accompanied by “a set of strict instructions for presenters and managers” — clear orders intended to be used only in specific circumstances. However, a staff member, acting on curiosity, clicked and opened the files, setting off the chain of events. Radio Caroline said it is treating the matter very seriously and acted “as soon as possible.” The station added that the staff member who played the files was reprimanded and “has apologised.” To prevent similar incidents, the files were removed from the studio computer desktop.