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Discovery Communications Europe fined £100,000

Ofcom ruling over broadcast of "Deadly Women" pre-watershed on Investigation Discovery (July 2014)

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BA
bilky asko
Quote:
In Ofcom’s Decision (“the Breach Decision”) published on 20 January 2014 in Broadcast Bulletin 2464, Ofcom’s Executive found that material broadcast by the Licensee on the Investigation Discovery service breached Rules 1.3, 1.11 and 2.3 of the Code.

That material comprised of eight separate episodes of the series Deadly Women, a true-life crime series about female killers. The episodes were broadcast at various times during the morning and afternoon on 16, 18 and 20 August 2013 (“the Broadcasts”).

First, Ofcom found the breaches of the Code by the Broadcasts were serious principally because of the graphic and extended depictions of extreme violence which they contained and which were transmitted at various times before the watershed in the school holidays. The Broadcasts were unsuitable for children and highly likely to have caused distress to any children in the audience.

Second, the breaches were repeated in that this unsuitable content was spread across 8 episodes of the series Deadly Women, shown on 16, 18 and 20 August 2013.

Last, the pre-watershed broadcasts were made in error and, by the Licensee’s own admission, in an “entirely inappropriate time-slot”. The errors were blatant and repeated over a period of 5 days. Ofcom considered that the breaches in this case demonstrated that the Licensee failed to ensure that it had robust compliance procedures in place.


from ……..

STAKEHOLDERS.OFCOM.ORG.UK
17-Jul-2014 @ 01:27

Apparently this fine is the same as what was given to Playboy for not doing enough to prevent under-18s from accessing their services.

I watch quite a few of Discovery's channels, as well as channels like History. It's not uncommon to hear quite a bit of pre-watershed swearing and the like (usually words that are less strong in the US than here, the rest being censored).

It makes me wonder whether there's a general laxity towards checking of programmes on the "specialist" channels, as it were, simply because they've been cleared in the US. Then again, it could simply be down to smaller budgets with the smaller channels.
Last edited by bilky asko on 17 July 2014 1:38am
IS
Inspector Sands
MTV had a similar fine a few years ago for showing a post-watershed item before 9. In that case it seemed there were two versions and the wrong one was scheduled.

Quote:
It makes me wonder whether there's a general laxity towards checking of programmes on the "specialist" channels, as it were, simply because they've been cleared in the US. Then again, it could simply be down to smaller budgets with the smaller channels.



I don't think it's anything to do with them being American programmes, channels still handle them like any other, in fact they'll usually need more work for compliance.

In this case, like MTV it sounds like there was nothing wrong with the programme itself - it was fine for broadcast in the UK - just there were errors with the scheduling of it. It could be down to cost cutting - more channels being handled by the same people for example
GM
Gary McEwan
Clearly they haven't had a look at Dave recently. Episodes of HIGNFY that have gone out before the watershed are laden with sweary's and no one seems to bat an eye lid.

The newer eps of Top Gear that are on Dave have a few choice words that aren't bleeped either...
VM
VMPhil
This is slightly off topic, but I do find it odd the words that are not considered offensive in American TV, but are here. I was slightly surprised for example, when watching an early (first series) episode of Friends on Comedy Central, Rachel uses the phrase "I'm a laundry spaz" to describe herself. This episode was originally broadcast in 1994, the same year the Spastics Society changed their name to Scope, so it was already derogatory over here.

On further research, it turns out that whilst the word and its contraction have become derogatory terms over here, it's still used in the States without much fuss, but the word still brings up the same connotations as it did over here. In fact, according to Wikipedia, the BBFC actually rated the aforementioned episode of Friends as a 12, rather than PG as with the rest of the first series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

That said, the episode was still broadcast during the daytime with no censoring.
IS
Inspector Sands
Quote:
This is slightly off topic, but I do find it odd the words that are not considered offensive in American TV, but are here. I was slightly surprised for example, when watching an early (first series) episode of Friends on Comedy Central, Rachel uses the phrase "I'm a laundry spaz" to describe herself. This episode was originally broadcast in 1994, the same year the Spastics Society changed their name to Scope, so it was already derogatory over here.


It has a different meaning over there, and seems any connection to 'Spastic' as we know it is either non existent or long forgotten. It's not the only time that it's been a trans-atlantic problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic#United_States
(Edit: Doh, you beat me to it)

The classic example of an offensive word that's not got the same meaning in the US is the episode of Mark & Mindy featuring a Mr and Mrs Wa*ker.


The word 'bender' is a problem too: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/12/the-last-airbender
WW
WW Update
Another such word is "Oriental," which is generally considered to be unacceptable and even offensive in the U.S. (except to describe objects), but is commonly heard in the UK.

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