Ofcom Off

Couple of points - if I remember correctly Ofcom announced that they had decided pin protection was strong enough to protect under 18s from 18 rated films during the day, but not strong enough to protect them from (the much more harmful) R18 at night. As if pin protection is some sort of sliding analogue scale of defense!

Also, the biggest issue with Ofcom is that they seem to have decided that "material that someone is offended by" is exactly the same as "harmful and offensive material". It clearly isn't, but that appears to be their main justification for the in breach findings. Seriously, read their reports, they go from "Mrs X of Chelmsford wrote to say how offended she was by a 0.2 second glimpse of Lolly's flange" to "we have found this harmful or offensive material to be in breach of . . ."

(26-06-2010 20:05 )IanG Wrote:  The issue as I see it is quite straightforward. The HRA 1998 allows Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion (Art. 9) and not only but also Freedom of Expression (Art. 10). The HRA is clear that religious feelings and so forth cannot be used as excuses to restrict other fundamental rights.

Quite right. The HRA allows freedom of thought, and Ofcom will decide which thoughts we will be allowed to have freely. Who could argue with that?

Eric was allowed to freely express himself ONLY because Joe
didn't understand what he was saying

Grey

Ofcom will eventually get told to fuck off (please God, make it so) - which will be sufficent for many - but what annoys me is that no one there will be answerable to or punished for their illegalities, rule bending and dictatorship

Isn't the government opening a public website called "freedom", or something with that word in it, where they want us public joes to advise them where we can reduce public spending? In other words, get rid of useless organisations that are basically not (now) important in view of this country's far bigger problems.

I heard something to that effect this morning anyway. So.. is this not the opportunity all we babe channel viewers (and producers) have been waiting for!?

Bombard them! And let's get rid!

(01-07-2010 21:22 )schmoo Wrote:  Isn't the government opening a public website called "freedom", or something with that word in it, where they want us public joes to advise them where we can reduce public spending? In other words, get rid of useless organisations that are basically not (now) important in view of this country's far bigger problems.

I heard something to that effect this morning anyway. So.. is this not the opportunity all we babe channel viewers (and producers) have been waiting for!?

Bombard them! And let's get rid!

That would be great, but just to reiterate what I said in my last post, I want to see someone from Ofcom forced to answer lots of difficult questions regarding the way their organisation has been run. I think one of those investigative documentaries into this group would make fasinating televison.

Re my post just above, i better just say that i heard something to this effect very quickly this morning on the news, so i may have got it (slightly) wrong.

If so, apologies, i'll delete the post. But for now, i'll leave the post there in case someone else heard it properly and will update/correct me.

Apologies again.

Oh and Stan, i quite agree.

I sincerely hope something is done to get rid of ofcom. This country is a fuckin joke and blatant double standards are being applied for a so-called democracy. 2010 for fucks sake why do we still have censorship in this country.

re schmoo/stan

the great repeal bill site

http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/

R18 TV: Allow adults to see R18 porn on TV with safety controls

Votes in favour would be appreciated.
It takes 30 seconds to register.

It is perfectly legal for adults in the UK to buy sexually explicit straight and gay DVDs and magazines. This is not to everyones taste and controls exist to stop people being offended by R18 films. This strength material is also easily available on the internet and mobile phones. Mediawatch UK, the ANTI porn campaign group estimates that 75% of adult males access internet porn, and that increasing numbers of women do. Clearly it is an important part of many peoples lives. Yet UK TV regulator Ofcom bans R18 explicit sex on TV, even late at night on clearly labelled lockable channels. This is a waste of Ofcom resources (they recently took 3 months to investigate a TV channel where the presenter was wearing the wrong colour knickers: Asian Babes,Bulletin 160). By banning this material Ofcom encourages people to access totally unregulated websites and foreign TV channels that permit acts not legal even in R18 films. By banning R18 explicit sex on TV Ofcom is contributing to marital tension and increasing the number of households that access material that could put children at risk. Since this material is totally legal in the UK if on DVD, in a magazine or on a UK website Ofcom is acting irrationally and against its own principles. Allow R18 strength explicit sex material on late night TV channels that can be locked out now.