SICK jokes about the deaths of Chinese cockle-pickers from Liverpool, who drowned at Morecambe Bay, have been condemned by media watchdog Ofcom.
Manchester's Key 103 was censured for broadcasting jokes sent by text message over three successive evenings about February's tragedy, in which up to 23 Chinese cockle-pickers lost their lives.
One of the jokes, broadcast a week after the incident, used the word "Chink" and all made fun of the deaths.
Ofcom said: "The station's programme director acknowledged that, in retrospect, there was no place for humour in such a scenario and that the broadcasts were regrettable. We thought the decision to read out a variety of texted 'jokes', a week after the incident, was seriously ill judged and that the items had been offensive."
Other complaints were upheld against ITV1's screening of the Brits, for including the use of a swearword, uttered by 50 Cent, in the subtitles, and ITV1's dating show Love on a Saturday Night, for broadcasting swearwords used by a contestant.
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