Big Brother

Keith Vaz has had a whinge about Big Brother via an Early Day Motion in Parliament. It has only attracted 5 signatures so far.

EDM 382: Racism in the Big Brother House

That this House:

• strongly condemns recent abusive comments made in the Big Brother house in the Channel 5 television programme Big Brother, some of which have been perceived as racist;

• notes, in particular, that a total of 1,225 complaints were made by members of the public following those comments, 1,108 of which followed one specific, particularly severe comment;

• further notes that Big Brother has been warned in the past about racist comments made in the Big Brother house; and

• calls on Ofcom to ensure that Big Brother enforces its rules more effectively.

The nutter campaigners of Mediawatch-UK have slammed Big Brother bosses for airing footage of Ashleigh Hughes pleasuring Luke Scrase.

A clip of the 21-year-old housemate putting her hand up the 24 year old's shorts in front of the rest of the group aired on Tuesday's (10.07.12) spin-off show Big Brother's Bit On The Side , much to the anger of Mediawatch-UK.

In the footage, Ashleigh giggled and said: tickle, tickle, tickle , while Luke writhed on the bed, telling his housemates he was aroused .

Mediawatch-UK Director Vivienne Pattison whinged:

This is just TV titillation. How low does the show need to get to get ratings? It's a sorry state of affairs if this is entertainment.

Big Brother's Little Brother Channel 4,
2 August 2009, 12:40

Big Brother's Little Brother ( BBLB ) is a pre-watershed sister programme to Channel 4's main Big Brother series ( BB ). It is screened live on weekdays at 18:00 and on Sunday lunchtimes. It provides an overview of the latest events in the Big Brother house and interviews with evicted housemates. Ofcom received one complaint from a viewer that two housemates who had recently left the house, Noirin Kelly ( Noirin ) and Isaac Stout ( Isaac ), used the words shit and fuck respectively.

Ofcom considered Rule 1.14 which requires that: The most offensive language must not be broadcast before the watershed.

Ofcom Decision: Resolved

Rule 1.14 requires that the most offensive language must not be broadcast before the watershed. Ofcom noted on this occasion that the broadcast of a clear example of this language ( fuck ), whilst unfortunate, occurred during a live broadcast and that the presenter and guest both immediately apologised for it. Ofcom also acknowledges that the word shit is considered only mildly offensive and a toilet word (-1-) and that its use here in a live programme transmitted before the watershed, was isolated, and that the presenter and guest again apologised immediately for its use. Channel 4 also broadcast an on-air apology to the audience for the use of offensive language in the programme and subsequently reiterated that apology to viewers by way of its response to Ofcom.

Given the immediate and appropriate action taken by the broadcaster, we consider the matter resolved.

The BBC has been criticised over the extent of its coverage of Michael Jackson's funeral and memorial service in Los Angeles.

One online complaint said: The coverage of Jackson's death has been far too extensive. The BBC has developed a cult of personality in line with the rest of the new media and have great pleasure in over reporting celebrities. Once it was the channel to watch for news, now it is not. The argument for the licence fee is founded on its impartiality and capability. Both can seriously be questioned.

The BBC News channel and the international BBC World News outlet screened the memorial with coverage fronted by Rajesh Mirchandani in Los Angeles. However, BBC Two also cleared its early evening schedule to broadcast live from the memorial from the Staples Centre.

Last week, the BBC received 748 complaints over its wall-to-wall coverage of the death of the singer.

Mary Hockaday, head of the BBC newsroom, posted a blog entry on BBC website defending the coverage. She said: We've had a number of complaints about our coverage, the main charge being that we simply did too much: that his death didn't justify the prominence and scale of our reporting through Friday and into the weekend. The story was certainly very prominent, with extensive reporting on our domestic and global news channels and it was the lead story on our television and radio bulletins and on the web. But this wasn't to the exclusion of other important stories domestically and internationally.

TV censor Ofcom has received almost 300 complaints about Big Brother in the past week, with the majority about an incident broadcast on Friday in which one of the housemates threatened another.

Ofcom said it had received 290 complaints about a variety of issues connected to the show in the week up to Monday 6 July.

The largest proportion of more than 200 complaints was about an argument between housemates Marcus Akin and Sree Dasari, which occurred on Thursday.

A Big Brother spokeswoman said: Big Brother intervened and took immediate and appropriate action relating to the argument between Sree and Marcus.

Marcus received a formal warning following his use of threatening language during his argument with Sree. Threatening language and behaviour is not acceptable in the Big Brother house. Big Brother monitors the welfare, language and behaviour of housemates at all times and will continue to monitor this situation.

Viewers have complained to Ofcom about Big Brother ’s sponsorship adverts.

The broadcasting watchdog has received several complaints about the "ageist, homophobic and sexist" Virgin Media idents, which are shown during commercial breaks.

However, Virgin Media defended the ads, arguing that they feature people from all walks of life and include a humour suitable for a Big Brother audience.

A spokesman said: They are intended to be irreverent and thought-provoking but also to make people laugh. At no point would we ever want to cause, or encourage, offence.