(21-12-2011 00:36 )Grawth Wrote: “Advertisements must not cause serious or widespread offence against generally accepted moral, social or cultural standards.”
Note the word "CAUSE". Where is Ofcom's evidence that any of these shows CAUSED serious or widespread offence?
One of many things that annoys me about Ofcom is their sheer illiteracy. The imedciles just done understand their own rules. One reason the channels get caught out time and time again is that even when Ofcom attempt to give clear guidance, a channel that follows the guidance of the letter still gets warned they may face a sanction.
"CAUSE" means something that actually happened, but in all these cases Ofcom says the shows had "POTENTIAL" to cause...
Looking at the Sanction decision, they refer to Guidelines (para 6) but these are not Rules. Time and time again Ofcom say that decisions depend on the exact content and circumstances. Rules are Rules, Guidelines are, well, non binding. If they must be followed to the letter then either they change the published Rules in which case Ofcom is legally obliged to go through a consultation, or they simply provide examples and clarifications of the Rules, in which case there is no point in quoting the Guidance.
Para 11 "thrust their hips to mime sexual intercourse" is NOT against the Rules or Guidelines.
Recordings were supplied, but in poor quality. So what? The recordings were good enough for Ofcom to decide the Rules were broken, so in what way is punishing SEL for poor quality recordings "proportionate" as required by law? (para 23). SEL didnt know good recordings werent supplied (para 64). How did that happen? Did Ofcom fail to communicate?
A new offence is created - emphasising sexual anatomy in para 44: "a liquid – saliva or oil – was used around the vagina and mons pubis to further emphasise the sexual anatomy". Yes, emphasising.
Then we find that white creme "resembled seminal fluid" (para 45). Really? The quantity would be wildly different and seminal fluid isnt white. Perhaps Ofcom is run by virgins who have never seen seminal fluid.
When determining the fine Ofcom took account of 10 previous breeches by SEL. Can we expect the BBCs multiple breeches to result in a similar fine next time the BBC broadcasts Fuck live from a music festival on daytime TV, or Clarkson?
Proportionate regulation would suggest taking account of turmoil caused by the abortive sale of the business and loss of experienced staff (paras 59 to 61).
The fine should reflect the degree of harm, actual or potential (para 74 on). The fines go way beyond any theoretical harm. More on than in another thread.
Ofcom whine that SEL took "no further steps" to prevent repeated breeches after being notified by Ofcom (para 91 on). Hang on. SEL had been recovering from an abortive sale. It had lost experienced staff. Quite obviously initial chaos, confusion and staff issues would have improved quickly and certainly after a balling out from the bosses after Ofcoms phone call. Improvements can happen without new layers of written compliance procedures.
Ofcom love accusing broadcasters of "repeated" breeches. If a broadcaster is not aware it is breaking the rules of course it will repeat. That is not the same as repeatedly driving at 60 knowing full well the limit is 30mph, or knowingly and deliberately flashing (para 94).
Does any oter genre get accused of repeated breeches? No. Does it happen? It would be amazing if not.
Apparently the shows were capable of causing "profound" offence to people who came across that channels unawares (para 108). Ofcom makes no attempt to quantify this despite being legally obliged to assess this at some point:
Para 319.4 of the Communications Act 2003 (
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/319) states
"In setting or revising any standards under this section, OFCOM must have regard, in particular and to such extent as appears to them to be relevant to the securing of the standards objectives, to ... (b)the likely size and composition of the potential audience for programmes included in television and radio services generally"
and
"the likelihood of persons who are unaware of the nature of a programme’s content being unintentionally exposed, by their own actions, to that content".
These have never been assessed either when drawing up the Broadcasting Code or when investigating a complaint. Ofcom cannot claim to be acting proprtionately if they have no idea how many people might have been affected.
Ofcom also makes a big deal about the risk to children due to some of the content being right after the watershed. Superficially this point seems valid, however it only makes sense if the TV is already tuned to an adult chat channel that suddenly changes. How many kids are likely to be in homes where they or Dad is watching LivexxxBabes? If someone is watching that while the kids are around they probably dont have any inhibitions about leaving porn mags, Page 3, and porn videos lying around, and some mild TV porn will be the least of their worries. Realistic non airbrushed women might even help bring their expectations back to reality.
Ofcom dont understand their own rules.