BSA issues new pay television code

Press release

The BSA has approved a new code of broadcasting practice for pay television, effective 1 August 2006.

The code is based on four principles which balance adult freedom with responsibility to the vulnerable.

"It will come as no surprise that one of the principles is that adult viewers should be able to make informed choices about what they wish to see and hear on subscription TV," said BSA Chair Joanne Morris.

Like the codes for radio and free to air television, the pay TV code is based on the responsibilities broadcasters have under the Broadcasting Act 1989. "Those responsibilities are about such things as standards for the protection of children," said Ms Morris. "In the case of pay TV, that includes promoting the filtering technology available to subscribers to the digital service."
Few complaints are received about pay TV programmes.
The new code is available from the BSA or from its website.

Link to code http://www.bsa.govt.nz/paytvcode.htm

Latest Decisions

Frontseat – Upheld (majority). No order.

A "Frontseat" item looked at a proposal to use classical music to tame anti-social behaviour. It included a brief clip from "A Clockwork Orange" depicting a man being beaten. The complainant was concerned that "Frontseat" had been given and G rating and broadcast during unsupervised children's viewing time (Saturday morning at 7.55). http://www.bsa.govt.nz/decisions/2006/2006-055.htm

Paul Holmes Breakfast – Not upheld

The host of "Paul Holmes Breakfast" stated that the Green Party was the party of "…the hippies, the Morris dancers, the square dancers, the anti-Americans, the nuclear ships fanatics … the enemies of science, and the rabid, irrational anti-GM movement.

The complainant, a square dancer said that in thirty years of square dancing he had not me a square dancer who supported the Green Party.

Fair Go – Not upheld

"Fair Go" ran an item about a woman who hired an advocate to help with an ACC review hearing. Complainants alleged the item breached good taste and decency, and was unbalanced inaccurate and unfair. http://www.bsa.govt.nz/decisions/2006/2006-035

Other new decisions are available: http://www.bsa.govt.nz/latestdecisions.htm

ENDS

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