The Stage

Ofcom rebuke for BBC over Live 8 expletives

Published Monday 20 February 2006 at 15:55 by Liz Thomas

Media regulator Ofcom has criticised the BBC’s failure to monitor its televised coverage of the Live 8 concert after a number of stars used a stream of expletives before the watershed.

The watchdog said the Corporation’s broadcast of the event, which aired sets from Snoop Dogg, Madonna and Green Day which all featured bad language, contravened the industry code. It also said the BBC failed to apologise for the swearing and racist language, some of which was broadcast at 6pm - well before the watershed.

More than 50 people complained about the show and in a response statement Ofcom upheld the complains and added the broadcast was inappropriate and compounded by a lack of apology. The report said: “The BBC failed to take sufficient steps to guard against the use of swearing in this live coverage.”

The BBC admitted that there had been shortcomings in the way the event was monitored but argued that at the time staff were in an emergency meeting over fears the event would overrun and so were unaware of the situation until 20 minutes after it had happened. It also said it had been assured by artists’ management that appropriate language would be used during the concert. It conceded it had considered putting a time delay on the broadcast but the idea was rejected because the concert was billed as a live event.

Meanwhile Coronation Street has been cleared of racism despite claims from more than 500 viewers about the use of the term “poor white trash” by an Asian character. Ofcom agreed that while the statement had obvious racist overtones, it could also be used to describe members of a “lower socio-economic group and added that the ITV1 flagship soap had placed it in a context in the show where it was clear that use of such a phrase unacceptable. It said it was clear that the programme was not condoning the attitude and said that such productions had “a right to reflect the fact that some people do hold such attitudes.”

The watchdog also said ITV1 soap opera Emmerdale had not broken the broadcasting code by showing a scene of two men kissing before the watershed, despite complaints from more than 100 viewers.