Ottawa, October 21, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released a decision concerning Télévision Quatre Saisons’ (TQS) broadcast of advertisements and a program promo during early morning children’s shows. Two advertisements were considered by the the Council: one for an “extreme fighting” tournament which showed men and women grappling, punching, kicking and stomping on each other; and another for a movie entitled Virus which depicted, among other things, people being pursued by a monster (a frightening-looking cyborg) and a man pointing a gun. The program promotion considered by the Council was for the upcoming broadcast of the movie Rob Roy and it showed, among other things, a man pierced by an arrow and a close-up of a gunshot. A parent complained that these ads were too violent for their time of broadcast, stating that [translation] “[t]o broadcast such a commercial during a gentle program for children ... is a direct assault on the child viewer and his or her parents.”
The Quebec Regional Council considered the complaint under the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Violence Code. It was the CBSC’s first opportunity to consider Articles 3.2 and 3.3 of that Code which deal with the scheduling of promotional material and advertisements. The Council noted that “the scheduling requirement is clear: ‘material which contains scenes of violence intended for adult audiences shall not be telecast before 9 p.m.’” The Council had “no hesitation” in concluding that the ad for Virus and the promo for Rob Roy contained ‘scenes of violence intended for adult audiences’ and thus breached this scheduling requirement.
The advertisement for the extreme fighting tournament escaped a finding of breach on the strict scheduling issue but was included in a finding of breach of Article 2 of the Violence Code which deals with children’s programming. The Council noted that the Code states that children’s programming should contain “very little violence”, “shall not contain frightening or otherwise excessive special effects” and “shall not contain realistic scenes of violence which create the impression that violence is the preferred way, or the only method to resolve conflict between individuals.”
Broadcasters were unquestionably concerned about the welfare of children when they took the step of adopting this Code and this case clearly goes beyond the mere question of the inviolability of the watershed hour. As a question of fact, the three alleged transgressions by the broadcaster occurred in the context of programs aimed at children. If ever a case of greater vigilance was merited, it is in the case of such programming.
The Quebec Regional Council also found that TQS was in breach of the CBSC’s standard of responsiveness with respect to one of its responses. The Council noted that “Broadcasters owe more to their audience than such a brush-off, particularly in circumstances where they are, by their own admission (as well as, ultimately, according to the CBSC’s finding), in breach of the Violence Code.“
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 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 (###) ###-####.