TV spoof on paedophilia causes surge in complaints

Channels more willing to remedy mistakes but concern mounts over erosion of 9pm watershed

A surge in the number of complaints by the public about taste and decency to the Broadcasting Standards Commission last year was largely caused by four television and radio programmes, including the controversial Brass Eye spoof on paedophilia.

The watchdog received a record 7,183 complaints about standards, a 46 per cent increase on 2000-01, the BSC review revealed.

Almost a quarter of the complaints related to Channel 4's Brass Eye, the BBC's Question Time Special after 11 September which was criticised for being anti-American, the foul-mouthed One Night with Robbie Williams and reports by ITN's News Direct of speculation that Chinese restaurants were to blame for the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Lord Dubs, the BSC's chairman, said there was concern about the continuing erosion of the 9pm watershed on television, with particular worries about swearing. "We don't think that at one minute past nine o'clock something should happen that couldn't happen at one minute to nine o'clock," he said. "It should be a continuum, so that we have prepared families for the fact that it is going into adult time. The big concern is children and young people and what they might be exposed to."

Paul Bolt, the BSC's director, said it needed constant vigilance to preserve the watershed. "Increasing competition for eyeballs on the TV companies is leading them to bend the watershed," he said.

There was also a growing tendency for broadcasters to overstate or sensationalise findings in factual programmes, causing unjustifiable damage to those being reported on, the review said.

In an HTV Wales programme investigating the alleged misuse of local authority funds, a builder was called a conman despite no evidence of wrongdoing. And an LWT documentary on amateur archaeologists removing artefacts from soldiers' bodies at Ypres unjustifiably called them "scavengers". The review said: "It is a basic principle of factual programming that when broadcasters are making allegations, the language should be justified and not simply for effect."

The BSC also said some broadcasts seemed to include material "to sensationalise that programme". It cited an edition of Panorama on paedophiles using the internet. "The commission felt that the BBC had included scaremongering allegations about the inadequacy of regulating the internet without giving a full picture of the steps that were being taken," the review said.

Problems with bad language and strong material also extended to radio, the commission added. It warned broadcasters against straying into stronger material when many children were in the audience. An interview earlier this year with the comedian Ali G on Sara Cox's Radio 1 show upset many listeners with bad language.

Lord Dubs said: "Our caseload shows that people still care a lot about broadcasting standards."

The commission noted, however, that broadcasters were more willing to remedy mistakes without waiting for a finding against them.

ITV1's share of complaints fell last year while those against BBC1 were up. Nearly a quarter of complaints upheld concerned sex, 13 per cent concerned violence, 17 per cent bad language and 39 per cent taste and decency. The level of complaints about fairness and privacy has remained constant with 358 last year.

The BSC supports the inclusion in the industry regulator, Ofcom, of a board dedicated to regulating content to ensure standards are maintained.

From robbie's sexual innuendo to anti-American questions on the BBC

One Night with Robbie Williams (BBC1): The BSC received 217 complaints after the singer swore and made sexual comments during a concert recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. Again the BBC apologised for broadcasting the show without editing out the offending words. The apology meant the BSC accepted the complaint had been resolved.

Brass Eye Special (Channel 4): The show on child sex abuse in July last year provoked 246 complaints – and 171 letters of support. The BSC defended the programme as an acceptable satire on the media's treatment of paedophilia but partially upheld the complaints because of the way children appeared to have been used in the filming.

Question Time Special (BBC1): Philip Lader, above, a former US ambassador, was subjected to anti-American questioning,two days after the 11 September attacks. The BSC said the BBC's public apology meant the complaint had been resolved.

News on News Direct: Bulletins attributing the outbreak of foot and mouth to Chinese restaurants provoked 1,082 complaints, mostly of racism. They were not upheld as the reports were fairly based on possible findings of Ministry of Agriculture investigations.