CASE NUMBER: 01/2007 – UITZINGER VS RADIO 702 – LANGUAGE

Complaint about an alleged offensive and homophobic joke broadcast by Radio 702 on 8 November 2006 at 15.07.  The programme included a discussion about shows that children watch.  A caller made the joke that a gay Teletubby should be called a ‘Stinky Winky’. The Tribunal held that it must be taken into account that the target market of Radio 702 falls in the LSM 6-10 category, that the ages of the mature and broadminded listeners range between 35 and 50, and that the show in question is a lifestyle/magazine programme.  The only clauses in the BCCSA Code regarding the use of offensive language relate to programmes specially designed for children.  These clauses could not be applied to the complaint in question because the programme under consideration was neither a children’s programme, nor was it aimed at children.  Generally children are not interested in talk radio or lifestyle programmes and in case a child was exposed to the joke in question, it is doubtful whether such a child would be able to understand the pun that was made in a tongue-in-cheek way.  Judged on their own, the words “Stinky Winky” cannot be regarded as offensive.  There was also no advocacy of hatred that is based on gender, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm present in the joke.  It could also not be regarded as a derogatory joke that was likely to have been hurtful to the sense of self-worth of persons who fall within the gay sexual orientation.  The Tribunal held that in the light of the guarantee of freedom of expression and the finding by the Constitutional Court that freedom of speech includes the right to air offensive material, the joke could not be judged to have exceeded the limits of the broadcaster’s freedom of expression.  The complaint was not upheld.