T
his is a complaint about a scene in the Afrikaans soapie “7 de Laan” where young people acted out a game known as rock-paper-scissors and where the words “Ching-Chong-Cha” were chanted. We were informed by the complainant that these words were offensive to people of Chinese origin. The complaint was based on the hate speech clause (4.2) and the dignity clause (15). The Tribunal found that the words did not constitute hate speech because there was no advocacy of hatred based on race or ethnicity, neither did they constitute incitement to cause harm. The Tribunal also considered clause 15 pertaining to dignity. There are two requirements for this contravention: a subjective and an objective element. Although the Complainants were subjectively offended and their dignity impaired, objectively judged no reasonable viewer would regard the alleged offending words as impairing the dignity of Chinese people as they were not mentioned or referred to. No contravention of the Code was found and the complaint was not upheld.
