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The Sikh Channel rapped by Ofcom for “inappropriate content”

The Sikh Channel has been given a warning by Ofcom for broadcasting “inappropriate content” during a news bulletin at 11:00 in February.

This edition of Sikh Channel News included a news report about a five year old boy who was attacked and killed by wild dogs in India. The material was translated from Punjabi to English by Ofcom. The regulator received a complaint that the news item, which was two minutes and 32 seconds in duration, included repeated footage of a dead child’s naked body which was not suitable for broadcast.

In response to the inquiry, The Sikh Channel apologised for any offence or distress caused by the inclusion of the material. It explained that there had been many reports in India and in the international news about the prevalence of injuries and deaths caused by attacks by wild dog attacks in India. The Licensee said that owing to the public interest and the serious nature of this incident, the report was included in its daily news bulletin.

It said that the footage of the victim in the programme had only amounted to nine seconds in total and that the majority of the report had consisted of appeals from villagers to tackle the issue of wild dog attacks.

The Sikh Channel explained that it only became aware of the images following correspondence from Ofcom. It said that, under normal circumstances, images of injuries or dead bodies would be blurred by the production company. In this case, however, the inclusion of the unblurred images of the child were included in error, and pre-transmission checks on the material were not conducted “thoroughly” so the images of the child were “regrettably missed”.

It explained that as a result of this “error”, it had employed a member of staff to monitor content daily and had put new procedures in place. The Licensee confirmed that, when necessary, graphic scenes would continue to be obscured and that, in addition, there would be a written warning shown during the opening credits and a verbal warning given prior to the broadcast of such content.

Ofcom acknowledged that adult viewers expect news broadcasters to report on challenging stories before the watershed and that the likely audience expectations of content included in the Sikh Channel new bulletins may differ to news items on mainstream channels. However, broadcasters do not have unlimited latitude. Further, the likely expectations of the audience for a UK licensed service are that the broadcaster applies generally accepted standards in a UK context. Therefore, broadcasters must comply with the Code and generally accepted standards. In Ofcom’s opinion the graphic and distressing footage of the child’s body and injuries shown without blurring were likely to have exceeded the audience’s expectations.

Ofcom was concerned that there was no warning or attempt to obscure the distressing footage. As a result, viewers had no advance information about the broadcast of this material. We took into account that the Licensee acknowledged that the unblurred footage of the child’s body had been broadcast in error and that it had taken remedial steps ensure future compliance with the Code. Ofcom reminds broadcasters that under their Ofcom licences, the Licensee is ultimately responsible for the compliance of the content it broadcasts.

Ofcom’s Decision is that the inclusion of the images of the child’s body and injuries exceeded generally accepted standards.