CASE NUMBER: 16/2009 – INGRAM VS MULTICHOICE CHANNEL 170 (HD) – WATERSHED

Complaint about Criminal Minds promo containing alleged graphic scenes of blood, crime and torment and that broadcaster attempted to entice young viewers to stay in the audience, since the promo was broadcast straight after a K-TV promo.  Respondent contended that the flighting of the two promos back-to-back was due to a technical error and that the K-TV promo was not scheduled to be broadcast at that time of the evening, since it would not have reached its target audience of young children.  Both promos were flighted as gap fillers just before the Sunday night movie.  The Criminal Minds promo complied with the provisions of Clause 12 of the Code. The Tribunal held that in accordance with Clause 13 of the Code, a later broadcasting time for the promo would have been preferable and urged the broadcaster to keep this clause in mind when promos  containing violence are broadcast. The Tribunal concluded that since the promo was not specially designed for children, displayed a warning classification of 16V and was broadcast after the commencement of the watershed time, the Code was not contravened. The complaint was not upheld since the onus to protect children against exposure to harmful material, substantially shifts to parents after 20h00.