Good Morning Britain has been found to have breached broadcasting rules following an interview featuring TV presenter Judith Chalmers. Ofcom received a complaint that the 84-year-old, best known for holiday programme Wish You Were Here...?, promoted the travel company Travel Republic during a July broadcast.
Chalmers, who was interviewed by Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard, made several references to the company, including stating that they "sell 300,000 holidays a year" and that "it's a marvellous company". The interview came after Chalmers had been voted the UK's "all-time leading TV travel icon" in research commissioned by Travel Republic.
ITV argued that Shephard had politely tried to move the conversation on with his comment "Sounds great". However, Ofcom said the remark had the effect of appearing to confirm, rather than shift focus away from, the favourable references.
The regulator ruled that the interview breached rules stating that "products, services and trademarks must not be promoted in programming" and that "no undue prominence may be given in programming to a product, service or trademark".
An Ofcom spokeswoman said: "Our investigation found that an interviewee on this programme made promotional statements about an online travel agent, to which she was commercially linked, without sufficient editorial justification."
