CONCERN ABOUT TV STANDARDS GROWS

THE BROADCASTING Standards Commission (BSC) have published a report that shows more people are expressing concern about television standards.
The ‘Matters of Offence’ report is based on a result from a survey of over 1000 adults interviewed between November and December 1999, and reports from individual panels of 100 monitors.
For the first time, respondents were asked if they felt that television intruded into people’s lives. A quarter said, when prompted, that there was too much intrusion, however the press were seen to be worse offenders than television.
Lord Holme, BSC’s Chairman, said: “We welcome the way in which broadcasters are giving audiences better warning of what to expect but they would be wise to pay close attention to these growing public concerns. The results reinforce our view of the importance of monitoring public attitudes in a changing world in order to ensure that our approach to handling complaints about standards in broadcasting reflect contemporary expectations.”
One of the most important findings from the research was that respondents said the majority of incidents of violence, offensive language and explicit sex were justifiable within the editorial context of the programme. Fewer than 2.5 per cent of pre-Watershed programmes viewed by monitors were described as containing ‘unjustifiable incidents’.
The findings also suggested that broadcasters are giving viewers better and more frequent information about programme content.