CASE NUMBER: 23/2008 – TEKA VS SABC1 – SEXUAL CONDUCT

A complaint was received against the broadcaster whose presenter in a programme on soccer asked viewers to identify a soccer star.  One of the clues to identify the soccer star, as stated by the presenter on the television programme, was that the star as a young boy “lost his virginity to a goat”.  The Tribunal considered the complaint in terms of clause 28 of the Broadcasting Code.  In this clause the words “scene or scenes” are used in the context that they are prohibited when they depict explicit violent sexual conduct, bestiality, etc. With reference to two previous cases before the Tribunal when the meaning of the words “scene or scenes” had to be interpreted, the Tribunal decided that it is not limited to visual scenes: a mere description of or reference to explicit violent sexual conduct, bestiality, etc. could constitute the contravention of clause 28.  Of course, each case will have to be judged on its own merits.  In this instance such contravention was found and the complaint upheld.