Oyakhilome’s channel fined N65m over Covid message

Loveworld channel, owned by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, has been fined a whopping N65m by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the United Kingdom for ethics breaches.

In a statement Wednesday March 31, OFCOM explained that the station was fined £125,000 (N65.6m) for breaching the country’s broadcasting code by disseminating misinformation on COVID-19.

Ofcom noted that the inaccurate and potentially harmful claims made during the programme were unsupported by any factual evidence.

The statement read in part, “Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty of £125,000 on Loveworld Limited after a programme broadcast on its religious service Loveworld Television Network featured inaccurate and potentially harmful claims about the Coronavirus without providing adequate protection for viewers.

“Ofcom considered these breaches to be serious, repeated and reckless, warranting the imposition of a statutory sanction beyond the direction to broadcast a statement of our findings that Ofcom issued in its Decision published 15 January 2021.

“Ofcom’s investigation found that the 29-hour programme, Global Day of Prayer, included statements claiming that the pandemic is a “planned” event created by the “deep state” for nefarious purposes, and that the vaccine is a “sinister” means of administering “nanochips” to control and harm people.

“Some statements claimed that fraudulent testing had been carried out to deceive the public about the existence of the virus and the scale of the pandemic. Others linked the cause of Covid-19 to the roll out of 5G technology.”

Pastor Chris is an unwavering Covid skeptic, linking the virus that has ravaged much of the world to the 5G technology.

In a recent sermon on his YouTube channel, the popular televangelist slated his fellow clergymen who encouraged members to receive the Covid vaccine.