“Clean-up TV campaigners seeking succour in Ofcom’s new broadcasting rules suffered an immediate blow today when the regulator gave the all-clear to programmes about ’sex with animals’. The comments by Richard Hooper, the Ofcom deputy chairman, came at the unveiling of its long-awaited new broadcasting code… Although Mr Hooper was at pains to point out that the new regulations will not give carte blanche to broadcasters, he said certain offensive material would be OK as long as it was shown at the right time and with suitable warnings. ‘[What about] a programme about sex with animals? Yes, it’s potentially possible. It all comes down to context,’ he said. The new code, which will apply across all TV and radio networks, allows broadcasters to ‘transmit challenging material, even that which may be considered offensive by some, provided it is editorially justified and the audience given appropriate information’. Mr Hooper’s comments recalled Channel 4 bestiality documentary, Animal Passions, which featured a man who admitted have sex with his pony and a woman who had sex with her dog. Although it was cleared by Ofcom last year, it generated 75 complaints from viewers who said it ‘normalised bestiality’ and could encourage copycat behaviour. The broadcasting code is intended to give broadcasters more ‘creative freedom’ and allow audiences more responsibility in deciding what they watch.” —Guardian (UK)

Ofcom — short for Office of Communications — is the British equivalent of the FCC here in America. Their mandate is to set the standards governing the morality of broadcast media. And in releasing a revised set of standards, Ofcom has kicked off a firestorm of controversy. Why? The superficial answer is that Ofcom seems to have given its imprimatur to broadcasting deviant behavior on the public airwaves — something that already generated headlines when it allowed the bestiality documentary Animal Passions to be aired.

In reality, however, Ofcom has created an entirely reasonable set of guidelines for broadcasters. The new standards operate on the principle that a program has to be judged within its context. Is it permissible to show a bestiality documentary between the cartoons and kiddie shows shown at eight o’clock on Saturday morning? Of course not. However, if the program is broadcast late at night, and if it is clearly labeled as a program for mature audiences, then what’s the problem? Yes, maybe a few kids will stumble onto it somehow — but then again, some kids will drink rubbing alcohol too. Who’s to blame then — manufacturers of rubbing alcohol? Or parents who leave it in kids’ reach? And the same question applies to the telly: who’s to blame if the kids are watching television at eleven o’clock? Broadcasters? Or parents who fail to regulate their children’s access to television?

Besides which, documentaries about bestiality are far and few between. Nobody is advocating the creation of primetime series about zoerasts — at least not on broadcast tv. For the appropriate audience, however, it could be a great premise for a show…

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