Make Ross pay: As BBC is fined record £150,000 over sick stunt, MPs demand £6m-a-year star and Russell Brand foot bill
By
Paul Revoir,
Liz Thomas and
Simon Cable
Last updated at 10:08 PM on 03rd April 2009
Jonathan Ross was under fierce pressure last night to pay personally the £150,000 fine imposed on the BBC over the Andrew Sachs phone calls scandal.
Critics said the presenter should dip into his £6million-a-year BBC salary to save the Corporation from having to cut funding for programmes.
The fine, a record for a single incident at the BBC, was imposed by the regulator Ofcom.
It said the corporation broke a string of rules over the messages left by Ross and Russell Brand on Mr Sachs's answerphone and broadcast on Brand's Radio 2 show.
It added that the BBC 'unwarrantably infringed' the privacy of the 78-year-old actor and his granddaughter Georgina Baillie, the target of the 'gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning' messages.
Ofcom said the offence was made worse because the October 18 show was recorded in advance but no senior executive listened to it in full before it was broadcast.
Miss Baillie, 23, said last night: 'If there is going to be punishment, then Ross and Brand should be the ones to foot the bill.'
She was backed by MPs and showbusiness personalities...............
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1167036/Make-Ross-pay-As-BBC-fined-record-150-000-sick-stunt-MPs-demand-6m-year-star-Russell-Brand-foot-bill.html
