Friday 24 January 2014

Sunrise charity question

Since my last post someone has reminded me of another Sunrise Radio story.

 In November 2011 the Guardian reported that Ofcom was to investigate Sunrise Radio after it was accused of withholding tens of thousands of pounds of  listeners' charity donations:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/nov/04/ofcom-investigates-radio-station-charity

The paper reported: "A separate investigation by the Charity Commission last month concluded that the London-based Sunrise Radio, which has a listenership of 2 million and a sister station, Kismat Radio, had inappropriately left £160,000 of disaster relief money to sit dormant in a bank account for seven years. The money had been raised after station appeals during the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.

"Before the commission confiscated the money and handed it to two British charities working the area, the fund had grown to more than £180,000 with interest. In its report, the Charity Commission criticised the commercial radio stations for failing to "provide a sufficient satisfactory explanation or provide evidence to give reason for their delay". The cash was held in an account called Sunrise Radio South-east Asia Disaster Appeal."

The report made it clear that there was no suggestion the money had been used for any other purpose.

An Ofcom spokesperson was quoted as saying: "Ofcom is currently investigating this case relating to Sunrise Radio. We will publish our findings in due course." But, more than two years later, I can't find any trace of Ofcom's findings. What did they conclude?


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