London: The BBC has been slammed for giving too much publicity to the Harry Potter films.
For the promotion of the Half Blood Prince film, starring Daniel Radcliffe as the boy wizard, Radio 1 broadcasted a special Potter Day programme last year to coincide with the release of the flick.
DJs tailored show to the JK Rowling film and 33 trailers were also played during the Beeb`s 12 hours of coverage.
What’s more, a website was set up to promote the day.
Internal watchdog of the BBC Trust ruled it had given "undue prominence" to the brand.
The BBC Trust said that the day’s programming as a whole breached the corporation’s editorial guidelines.
"The verbal references to the brand or the film were not used sparingly nor were there very strong journalistic reasons for repeated references," a news channel quoted the trust as saying in its report.
"The number of references and the manner in which the trails were delivered amounted to undue prominence," the trust added.
But it rejected RadioCentre`s assertions that the coverage amounted to an endorsement of the film or that a BBC website was set up to promote the day gave undue prominence to it.
RadioCentre chief executive Andrew Harrison said the BBC had been "hijacked for the promotion of an already successful commercial product".
ANI
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