Ottawa, August 31, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released two decisions concerning CICT-TV (Calgary). The first of these two decisions dealt with the animated series entitled South Park. A parent complained about the running “spoof” of having one of the young characters killed in each episode. While her complaint focused mainly on the psychological effect of this spoof on her son, who bears the same name as the character who gets killed, she also raised the issue of gratuitous violence.
The Prairie Regional Council considered the complaint under the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Violence Code. The Council, by a majority, found no breach. On the first issue, the Council did not find that the episode of South Park in question contained any gratuitous violence. The Council noted
there are moments which manifest violent elements, as would be expected in an episode which dealt with hunting, large guns and animals being shot, but the show, in the end, has a moral or lesson; namely, that hunting is a cruel and immoral practice. Those relatively brief violent elements which are present are integral to the development of the plot of the episode in question and, therefore, do not come within the purview of the definition of gratuitous violence set out in the Violence Code.
To the extent that the complainant's violence concern is limited to the “killing of Kenny”, the unrealistic violence which recurs from episode to episode is in keeping with a theme of the South Park series which seeks to ridicule societal attitudes, conventions and taboos. While the Council does not consider that a plot line or theme which has violence as its premise would escape any and all supervision under Clause 1 of the Violence Code (see CHCH-TV re the movie Strange Days (CBSC Decisions 98/99-0043 0075, February 3, 1999)), it considers that the unrealistic violence of “killing Kenny” manifests the violent premise of this part of South Park’s theme in such a way as to not fall afoul of Clause 1 of the Violence Code.
Regarding the allegation that the running spoof is harmful to children, the Council found, most important, that “South Park is decidedly not children's fare.”
It is not represented to be. It carries an explicit disclaimer. It is not aired at an hour when children could be expected to access it. The Council acknowledges the regrettable reality that some, even many, children may be exposed to the program via the technology of the VCR, the Internet or other means but it is well aware that the original broadcaster cannot be seen as responsible for an event so far out of its control.
A Council member dissented on this point, however, noting that “the show’s marketing has the effect of negating the broadcaster’s efforts to make South Park adult fare”, and accordingly would have found the program in violation of the provision in the Violence Code which deals with children’s programming.
In another decision released today, the Prairie Regional Council found CICT-TV in breach of provisions of the CAB Code of Ethics as well as the Radio Television and News Directors’ Association (RTNDA) Code of (Journalistic) Ethics in relation to a report on a stabbing in a park in High River. The Council found that
by allowing an unsubstantiated allegation to be made in the report regarding the possible involvement of drugs in the homicide, the broadcaster failed to present the news fairly and accurately as required by clauses in both the CAB and RTNDA Codes of Ethics. Moreover, the Council considers that the inclusion of this fact was intended to sensationalize the story in contravention of Article 3 of the RTNDA Code of Ethics.
Canada’s private broadcasters have themselves created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect the members of their profession will abide. In 1990, they also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those professional broadcast Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices first created by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA) in 1970. More than 430 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are membersof 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 (###) ###-####.