RTQ - ACMA Investigation Report 2653

Investigation Report No. 2653

• Section 149 (1)

• clause 3.13 (Promotions for News, Current Affairs, Sport and Certain Other Programs)
• clause 7.11 (Time Limits on Responses to Code Complaints)

Investigation conclusion

• Breach of clause 3.13 (Promotions for News, Current Affairs, Sport and Certain Other Programs) of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010.
• Breach of clause 7.11 (Time Limits on Responses to Code Complaints) of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010.

The complaint

On 19 August 2011, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) received a written complaint, via email, about a promotion for the program A Current Affair which was broadcast by WIN Television QLD Pty Ltdon 3 and 4 June 2011.

The complaint alleged that the program promotion was not suitable for broadcast during a G-classification zone as it contained explicit and horrific depictions of a female victim of physical violence.

The complainant advised that a written complaint was made to the licensee on 7 June 2011 regarding the program promotion and that the licensee failed to respond to the complainant within 30 days of receiving the complaint.

The complainant forwarded the matter to the ACMA for investigation.

The program

A Current Affair is an Australian current affairs program broadcast on weeknights at 6.30 pm (AEST). The program is presented by an in-studio host who introduces each of the current affairs segments which comprise the program. The content is varied and includes coverage of big news stories, reports on community issues such as scandals and crime as well as profiling ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances.

The program promotion for A Current Affair that is the subject of the complaintwas screened during G-classified time zones on Friday 3 June 2011 at 5.30 pm and on Saturday 4 June 2011 at approximately 8.30 am.

The program promotionis approximately 20 seconds long. It is predominantly a series of still shots accompanied by background music and a voiceover stating:

The beautiful bride, bashed on her wedding day, by the monster she just married. On A Current Affair, how this low mongrel hit his new wife, 27 times, before they even got to the reception, all because he thought, she didn’t look pretty enough. A Current Affair, Monday.

A series of still shots comprise the visual part of the program promotion, each appearing on screen for approximately two seconds. Five of the eleven still shots shown on screen depict a close-up or medium close-up of a young female wearing a wedding gown. The female has facial injuries, consistent with being physically assaulted. She has what appears to be a broken and bloodied nose, black eyes, red eyeballs and blood on her cheeks, nose, lips and chin. The medium close-upimages of the female show that the female’s white wedding gown and white gloves are blood stained. At approximately 10 seconds, the words ‘BASHED BRIDE EXCLUSIVE’, along with a computer generated graphic depicting blood spatter, are superimposed on the bottom of the screen and remain there for approximately nine seconds.

At approximately eight seconds there is a close up of the female’s alleged attacker. The male is seen smirking while looking towards the camera with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. The image flashes to a black and white negative effect for an instant as the camera pans in on the face of the alleged attacker.

Assessment

The assessment is based on a copy of the relevant broadcast provided to the ACMA by the licensee as well as submissions from the complainant and the licensee.

Relevant Provisions

The Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010 (the Code) contains the following provisions that are relevant in the matter raised by the complainant:

SECTION 3: PROGRAM PROMOTION

Promotions for News, Current Affairs, Sport and Certain Other Programs

3.13 A promotion for a news, current affairs or sporting event, or for any program that deals in a responsible way with important social or moral issues, must comply in every respect with the requirements for the viewing zone in which it is broadcast (and, as far as is practicable, with the additional restrictions set out in Clauses 3.8 to 3.11).

SECTION 2: CLASSIFICATION

Classification Zones

[...]

General (G) classification zones

2.8 The G classification zones are:

Weekdays 6.00am – 8.30am

4.00pm – 7.00pm

Weekends 6.00am – 10.00am

2.8.1 In G zones, only material classified G, C and P may be broadcast (though note limited exemptions in Clause 2.13.1 and 2.13.2).

[...]

SECTION 7: HANDLING OF COMPLAINTS TO LICENSEES

Time Limits on Responses to Code Complaints

7.11Subject to Clause 7.15, a licensee must provide a substantive written response to a complaint that satisfies the requirements in Clause 7.2.

[...]

APPENDIX 4: TELEVISION CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES

[...]

The General (G) Classification

2. Material classified G is not necessarily intended for children but it must be very mild in impact and must not contain any matter likely to be unsuitable for children to watch without supervision.

2.1Violence: Visual depiction of physical and psychological violence must be very restrained. The use of weapons, threatening language, sounds or special effects must have a very low sense of threat or menace, must be strictly limited to the story line or program context, must be infrequent and must not show violent activity to be acceptable or desirable.

[...]

Complainant’s submissions

In correspondence to FreeTV Australia dated 7 June 2011, the complainant stated the following:

My complaint is the promotion for the story of the bashed bride on her wedding day that was to be seen on A Current Affair. I saw the advertisement for this at 5.30pm on a weekday (Wed, 1June or it may have been Thursday 2 June) and then again at 8.30 am on the weekend. I have a 5 year old daughter who was watching television at that time[...]and I cannot believe the images of the bashed bride were shown at these times[...]why on earth are such explicit, horrific pictures being shown at 5.30pm or 8.30am? Is it possible to put a stop to this?

[...]

In correspondence to the ACMA, dated 19 August 2011, the complainant stated the following:

I refer to a complaint I made with FreeTV on 7 June 2011 in relation to an advertising promotion for A Current Affair on Channel 9.

To date, after more than 60 days, I have not received any response from Channel 9, which is very concerning.

[...]

Licensee’s submissions

In correspondence to the ACMA dated 12 September 2011, the licensee stated the following:

On receiving your correspondence, we immediately undertook an investigation as to what had happened to the complaint, to which we had no knowledge, nor did we respond to it as [the complainant] had advised the ACMA

[...]

To that end, we have breached clause 7.13 of the Code of Practice in that we had not picked up the complaint from the website nor responded to it[1].
As a consequence of missing this complaint on the Freetv website, our picking up of complaints from the Freetv website was on a basis of every 2 weeks at the most and weekly as a minimum. We have now changed this practice to pick up these complaints each morning to ensure that complaints are not missed.

On 15 September 2011 the licensee sent a written response to the complainant. A copy of the response was made available to the ACMA. The letter contained the following relevant submissions:

[...]

In relation to the program promotion for the A Current Affair program [...] we can advise that the program promotion you saw was received at WIN from the Nine Network on Friday 3 June and broadcast that evening at approx 5.30pm and again on Saturday 4June within the Weekend Today Show.

This program promotion was classified for G programs. Broadcasters are required to also not only consider the classification of the program in which the program promo is placed, we are also required to consider the likely audience that is watching the programs.[...]

[...]

With regards to the suitability of this program promotion to be broadcast with the G classification that it carried, we are of the view that the program promotion did not meet the guidelines of a G classification at all and was in breach of the Commercial Television Code of Practice.

[...]

On investigation of our processes that are in place in relation to program promotions received from our network program supplier, the Nine Network, our investigation revealed that our process was not adhered to by our staff on this occasion. [...]

We have further adjusted our internal process and added additional management checks and authorities both prior to broadcast and if necessary when broadcast to ensure that material such as was contained within this program promotion is not broadcast across the WIN Network.

[...]

Finding

The ACMA finds that WIN Television QLD Pty Ltd did not comply with:

• clause 3.13 (Promotions for News, Current Affairs, Sport and Certain Other Programs) of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010;
• clause 7.11 (Time Limits on Responses to Code Complaints) of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010

in broadcasting the program promotion forA Current Affairson Friday 3 June 2011 at 5.30 pm and on Saturday 4 June 2011 at approximately 8.30 am.

Reasons

Broadcast of program promotion during a G-classification zone

Clause 3.13 provides that promotions for current affairs programs must comply in every respect with the requirements of the viewing zone in which it is broadcast.

The A Current Affair program promotion was broadcast during G-classified time zones on Friday 3June 2011 at 5.30 pm and on Saturday 4 June 2011 at approximately 8.30 am.

The Code provides that during a G classification zone, only material classified G, C and P may be broadcast.

In correspondence to the complainant dated 15 September 2011,RTQ advised that the content of the program promotion did not meet the guidelines of a G classification.

The ACMA considered the program promotion for A Current Affair broadcast on Friday 3 June 2011 at 5.30 pm and on Saturday 4 June 2011 at approximately 8.30 am andnoted that the promotion contained frequent visual depictions of the effects of physical violence that were greater than very restrained and which had a sense of threat or menace that was greater than very low, such that the program promotion could not be accommodated within a G classification.

As it is considered that the program promotion for A Current Affair cannot be accommodated at a G classification, it was not suitable for broadcast during the G classification zone on Friday 3 June 2011 at 5.30pm and on Saturday 4 June 2011 at approximately 8.30am.

Complaints handling

The program promotion which is the subject of the complaint was provided on broadcast relay by Nine Network Pty Ltd to RTQ on 3 June 2011 for use during G classified programs.

In correspondence to the ACMA dated 12 September 2011, RTQ advised that whilst it had received the complaint, a response had not been sent to the complainant. In addition, the ACMA notes that RTQ did not in this instance exercise its discretion to refer the complaint to Nine Network Pty Ltd for a substantive response.

As a response was not sent to the complainant and as acknowledged by RTQ in its correspondence to the ACMA dated 12 September 2011 RTQ has breached clause 7.11of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010.

Action taken

RTQ has taken the following action to address the two breach findings:

• Adjusted its internal process to ensure there are additional management checks both prior to broadcast and if necessary when broadcast to ensure program promotions comply with the viewing zones in which they are broadcast;
• Amended its complaints handling process to ensure that complaints lodged through FreeTV Australia are collected daily; and
• Provided the complainant with a substantive response to the complaint lodged with FreeTV Australia on 7 June 2011, acknowledging a breach of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010 in regard to the broadcast of the program promotion during a G classification zone and its failure to provide a response to the complaint.

The ACMA considers that these actions address the compliance issues raised by the investigation and will continue to monitor the licensee’s performance in this regard.

ACMA Investigation Report – A Current Affair program promotionbroadcast by RTQ on
3 and 4 June 20111

[1] On 30 September 2011 the Licensee confirmed with the ACMA that the appropriate complaint handling provision should be clause 7.11