Broadcasting: ITC upholds complaints on monarchy debate

The Independent Television Commission has partly backed viewers' complaints concerning ITV's debate on the future of the monarchy. Screened in January, it involved 3,000 people at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre and thousands more in a telephone poll. It sparked a storm of criticism, including 85 official complaints. The ITC said that, while the programme had been impartial, constituted a proper subject for television and was a distinctive new format, it "could not be regarded as a programme of high quality".

It agreed with many complainants that the audience had at times seemed out of control, that there had been a lack of scope for the development of arguments - due to the very rapid changeover and quantity of panelists - and that technical problems had overloaded the telephone voting system.The programme's maker, Carlton, said it was "puzzled" by the ITC's position.