It’s amazing how quickly I forget… it must be TVs fault. Convenient really as it’s my job to remember when TV has been bad. It wasn’t that long ago that cornflakes were being spat across the morning papers in disgust at Emily Parr saying a naughty word on Big Brother 8. Even though the naughty word was aimed at Charley Uchea without malice (in fact, it was aimed with misguided affection), what left my surprised was Parr’s ability to avoid going off on foul mouthed tirades of abuse in relation to the most abhorrent person ever to grace a TV screen.

Anyway, about all that… Channel 4 has been cleared of breaching broadcasting regulations over its decision to transmit the incident which saw Emily using a racially offensive word with Ofcom saying that Channel 4′s decision to broadcast the incident was justified by the context of the show, adding that it had made clear that the language was “offensive and unacceptable”.

Around 450 complaints were made after Parr’s comment was broadcast in a Channel 4 highlights episode of Big Brother on June 7 this year. Parr, dancing with two of her housemates said “You pushing it nigga?” (the fundamental difference it seems is on the ‘a’ and lack of ‘er’) which was rightly challenged. As we’ll remember, a BB dawn raid took place and Parr was removed from the house. Of course, a big ol’ can of worms was opened which saw some crying foul play and overreaction and other noting that the BB producers failed to act when Laura Williams, called a housemate Liam McGough a “poof”.

In its ruling, Ofcom said: “For the broadcaster, the important distinction had been made that Laura Williams, in contrast to Emily Parr, had not used this term directly against a gay housemate (Liam McGough is not gay) and it had been very clear that the gay housemate whom it had been used in front of had not been offended by her use of the term, unlike Charley Uchea in the Emily Parr incident.” The regulator said there was “insufficient or no evidence to suggest that Laura Williams used the word … in a denigratory way”.

Ofcom said it was “not possible or appropriate at present to establish definitively the degree of offence use of the world ‘poof’ can cause in all contexts”. That said, Ofcom said it was “sympathetic” to the concerns voiced by complainants about the use of the word (over 200 complainants for the record) and reminded broadcasters to “exercise care about the frequency with, and context in, the word is broadcast”.

“Ofcom has made clear in previous adjudications and findings that the broadcasters’ right to broadcast such material and the audience’s right to receive it is an important principle,” said the regulator in its ruling today. It has been established over many series that the Big Brother audience expects to see all aspects of the housemates’ characters exposed during their stay in the house. Channel 4 would not have been expected to keep key character information from viewers, since it is the viewers who decide who to vote for. By including these scenes, Channel 4 offered viewers an insight into all the housemates’ characters, not just Emily Parr’s. In Ofcom’s view this context is in line with the editorial content of the series and audience expectations.”

So with that, should everything be kept in the edit, leaving viewers to decide what they deem appropriate? Of course, this could end up with housemates facing a trial by fire, but if we ‘expect’ the show to “keep key character information” in, then surely evicting anyone using inappropriate language without public vote is against the principals of the show? Have Ofcom got this one right?

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[via The Guardian]