APPEAL TRIBINAL – The first principle underlying the doctrine of precedent in our courts, namely uniformity between decisions of the higher and lower rungs of adjudication, is as important in the BCCSA adjudication hierarchy as it is in the formal court system.
The second principle of equality, that of treating like cases alike, is too. And the third, predictability of rules, is also important for broadcasters and viewers when they bring matters to the BCCSA. Decisions of the BCCSA Appeal Tribunal are thus binding on BCCSA adjudicators lower in the BCCSA’s adjudication structure.
When determining whether a complaint that a provision of the Code has been transgressed the particular broadcast must be assessed in context, which includes, also in reality programmes, whether the programme has a storyline addressing specific areas of life. Where, as in this case, the focus is on the relationship between two young participants in a country where gender-based violence is endemic, this context also includes prior warnings at the start of the broadcast of possible scenes of violence or threats of violence and subsequent episodes clarifying that the screened violence was not acceptable and explaining why this is so.