Latest Ofcom Bulletin

The latest Ofcom bulletin has just come out
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/pcb41/issue54.pdf

Some interesting stuff in there, including Live 8's string of swear words and also someone complaining about The Great Big British Quiz, plus complaints about Emmerdale, Coronation Street and The Frank Skinner Show.

I feel I have to ask because I haven't a clue - what is Ofcom?

Regulator that replaced the ITC (Independent Television Commission)

although that bulletin seems to be dealing with ex-BSC complaints doesn't it?

i don't know why they bothered typing all that up, they might as well just write "all complaints: not upheld"

That report makes interesting reading. I don't know if any complaints were made about this, but it's not mentioned in the report. On BBC Breakfast one morning in either September or October last year, a woman in her 30s was being interviewed sometime before 8am. She used the word f****** in one of her sentences. Sian apologised to the viewers after the interview. I personally thought that was wrong of the woman, being as though most children have not left their homes before 8am. What's worse is that the same woman was interviewed again on Breakfast in December, though she kept her mouth clean that time. Seemed bizzare to me that the BBC agreed to interview a woman live who had previously used strong language on the same programme a few months before.

The ironic thing is that she was being interviewed about the 'proliferation' of bad language on TV and her anger at it.

Yes it replaced the ITC, the Radio Authority, OFTEL, the BSC and the Radiocommunications Agency.

The legacy of the BSC (and the BCC which merged with the BSC in the 1990s) is the reason why they have some say over the BBC.




Some were partially upheld. But even in those cases where something wasn't upheld it's useful to know why it wasn't.

I quite like the word 'subsumed', but that's by the by.

Indeed, the Ofcom bulletins (and the ASA rulings) are a good guide to what's acceptable and what's not under the spirit of the Broadcast Code, etc, especially where the rules are a bit fuzzy.

Very interesting, but you do have to wonder how 500 people can complain simply about the phrase 'white trash.'
Do these people have nothing better to do with their lives?

Yes, I like that word too.... in the same way I like the word 'plinth'




Yes, me thinks they do protest too much!

Even more worrying that 126 people have nothing better to do than complain about two men kissing.

If they did that, then they would have to deal with an endless barrage of complaints from the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (Mediawatch UK).