CASE NUMBER: 20/2009 – PHELAN VS – MULTICHOICE – DISCOVERY CHANNEL 250 – WATERSHED

Complaint about alleged shocking and offensive images in a promo broadcast during family viewing time.  As far as offensiveness is concerned, the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, which includes the right to offend within reasonable limits.  However, the Tribunal found that the horribly distorted and grotesque human faces and bodies contained in the promo might have been very scary for young children, especially since the last image shows a child cringing away from a human being who is covered in long hair like an animal.  Research found that distorted images is one of the most common types of fright stimuli for children that leads to sleeplesness and nightmares.  The Respondent explained that Discovery programmes are packaged outside South Africa and transmitted directly via satellite and that MultiChoice has no control over the timing or scheduling of promos contained in such programmes.  Clauses 12 and 13 of the Code for Subscription Broadcasters state that licensees must, wherever practicable, avoid material which is unsuitable for children.  It was argued that although the promo was broadcast during family viewing time, MultiChoice had no control over this and thus a finding of negligence would be unreasonable.  MultiChoice has also requested Discovering channel to avoid broadcasting promotional material that contains shocking images that may offend sensitive viewers and upset children during family viewing time or at least warn viewers that the images may be offensive.  Under normal circumstances broadcasting of the promo during family viewing time would have constituted a contravention of Clauses 12 and 13 of the Code.  However, the Tribunal concluded that since it was practically impossible to control the timing of the promo and in the light of the measures taken by the broadcaster to address the problem, the complaint is not upheld.   It is trusted that Discovery channel will take MultiChoice’s request seriously.