Ottawa, August 23, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning the broadcast of a controversial theatrically-released feature film entitled Kids on Showcase Television. The movie “documents” the life of inner-city teenagers who are heavily involved in drugs and actively and frequently engaging in sexual activity. A complainant alleged that the movie was tantamount to “kiddie porn”.
The Ontario Regional Council considered the complaint under the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Violence Code and Sex-Role Portrayal Code. It did not find a breach of either code. In its decision, the Council reiterated the view that “the basic general principle of freedom of expression will militate in favour of a broadcast, whether controversial or otherwise, except in those circumstances in which some overriding standard imposed by the private broadcasters in their Codes supersedes.” The Council further noted that
a reason for the existence of reasonably broad latitude with respect to broadcasters’ programming freedom is that the fullness of its exercise is balanced in the Codes by requirements relating to scheduling, rating and the provision of viewer advisories, which enable viewers to make informed choices as to what may or may not be palatable for them and their families.
The Council did not find that any overriding standard militated against the airing of the movie, i.e. it did not find that the movie sexualized children in contravention of the Sex-Role Portrayal Code or nor that it contained gratuitous or glamorized violence in contravention of the Violence Code. Moreover, the Council was of the view that “Showcase did everything necessary through scheduling and advisories to ensure that the movie would not be likely to reach anyone other than its target audience.” The Council noted specifically that
[T]he broadcaster played the film at an extremely discreet hour [11 p.m. in Winnipeg], well after the watershed in the originating time zone thereby avoiding the likelihood that any unsupervised children would see the film, and that the broadcaster was extremely responsible in its presentation of the film in a context with panel discussion before and after the screening of the film. In these respects, Showcase exercised its freedom of expression in a thoughtful and responsible way and not in an exploitative or prurient manner. While the Council expresses no viewpoint on the broadcaster’s entitlement to air the film at 9 p.m., on the cusp of the watershed, where it would obviously have been more enticing and accessible to the young people about whom the complainant is justifiably concerned, the fact is that Showcase did not push that envelope.
Canada’s private broadcasters have created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect their members will abide. They also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices created by the Radio Television News Directors Association Canada (RTNDA). More than 430 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are members of the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the World Wide Web at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ron Cohen, at (###) ###-####.