Legal and Compliance

The programme lawyers and compliance advisers in the legal & compliance department are enablers with considerable expertise in dealing with the full range of media law and regulatory compliance issues. They advise on all content-related legal and compliance issues in the making and broadcast of programmes and other content on all Channel 4 platforms, before and after broadcast. In addition they provide guidance on ethical issues and best practice in relation to the making and broadcast of our programmes.

The programme lawyers in the legal & compliance department are involved in legal and compliance training of internal staff and independent producers, draw up specific guidelines for programmes, series and genres where needed and are instrumental in the robust defence of programme content both where complaints are made to Ofcom and where litigation is threatened. They are also the first point of contact with Ofcom and are involved in proactive lobbying on legal and regulatory changes affecting programme content.

In addition to being easy to find during office hours by visiting or calling the legal & compliance department, a designated programme lawyer is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ('the duty lawyer'). A duty lawyer memo is circulated at the end of each week and this contains the name of the following week's duty lawyer and their full contact details.