Ottawa, June 15, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning a short news report on a pellet gun shooting incident which aired on CIHF-TV (Global) (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia). The owner of the house shown in the report complained to the CBSC about the invasion of privacy created by this report as well as the alleged sensationalization by CIHF-TV of the news story.
The Atlantic Regional Council considered the complaint under the Codes of Ethics of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) and the Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA). It found no breach of either Code. With respect to the allegation that the report violated the complainant’s right to privacy, the Council noted that “no individual or individuals is, or are, named” in the report. Accordingly, it concluded
While it may be true that the house may be distinctive in its neighbourhood, and indeed that some friends, neghbours or relatives may have been able to identify the owner of the house on this basis, there is insufficient information in the report to make it clear to others who the possible perpetrators of the alleged offence might be.
With respect to the allegation that the report was sensationalized, the Council stated
On its most basic level, the news report did not, in the view of the Atlantic Regional Council, distort or sensationalize any aspect of the story. The event was, after all, a “random gun firing in a rural neighbourhood.” The house from which the shot apparently came was depicted on screen although it was not actually identified. Moreover, an air gun was “later confiscated [by police] from the house.” The story then focussed on the nature of the injuries suffered by the victim and described what might have happened, had the shot struck another part of the victim’s body or had she not been as well protected by the clothing she was wearing. The story identified no individual and was quite clear about the fact that no charges had yet been laid. In fact, a good deal of the background orientation of the story centers around the fact that the victim was looking for an apology. All in all, in the view of the Atlantic Regional Council, the story was the opposite of sensationalized; it was, if anything, understated. There was not a scrap of video footage or audio dialogue that was remotely overstated or even exciting beyond the obvious and accurate report that a shooting of some kind had taken place in a neighbourhood utterly unaccustomed to such an event.
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 (###) ###-####.