M-Net says its sorry and accepts without any
reservations the ruling, after a massive fine of R40 000 was levelled
against the South African pay TV broadcaster by the Broadcasting Complaints
Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) for movie mistakes.
DStv subscribers complained after M-Net showed
a movie with extreme adult content in October during the day. In a second case
a mother recorded a Barbie Mermaid movie on DStv for her daughter, only to find
her two and a half year old screaming in terror. M-Net wrongly showed the
extreme horror miniseries Bag of Bones before the Barbie Mermaid movie which also
continued 13 minutes into the children's movie.
"The screening of inappropriate content on
any of our channels before the watershed is an anomaly and serious offense
within the company, which always necessitates immediate internal
investigations," says M-Net.
"M-Net apologises for broadcasting Hollywood's
Best Directors. The same applies to screening Bag of Bones on M-Net Movies 1 a
month earlier, on the morning of Thursday 20 September," says the broadcaster.
"M-Net accepts, without any reservations, the
ruling of the BCCSA in both cases as well as the sanctions imposed".
According to M-Net, even before the BCCSA
tribunal decided on the judgement, M-Net investigated the reasons behind the
scheduling errors in detail and took disciplinary action against the schedulers
and employees concerned. "The stringent internal systems that M-Net has in
place to avoid such errors have been re-emphasised to all staff."
Hollywood's Best Directors shown on a Sunday
morning contained female nudity (breasts), implied sex as well as female
genitalia although M-Net gave it a rating of PG13 only. MultiChoice told the
DStv subscriber that DStv cannot be held responsible, after which the
subscriber took the case to the BCCSA.
M-Net told the BCCSA that "standard
procedures were not followed by the staff member responsible for scheduling".
The staff member failed to submit the programme to the programme acceptance
department.
M-Net said it was never the pay TV
broadcaster’s intention to broadcast the programme during the day. "We are
doing our utmost to ensure that an incident like this is not repeated."
In the second instance a mother said her five
year old son and two and a half year old daughter is traumatised after she took
careful steps about what her children are exposed to and not and had them watch
a family movie channel.
"I am appaled and furious at the blunder
which occurred today on DStv. I selected the Barbie programme for her to watch
this afternoon and walked out only to hear my daughter scream and being
inconsolable with the terrible show which involved a little girl before her. My
son who is five is completely traumatised."
"As a trusted brand, we expect DStv not to be
so careless and irresponsible," she said. "How do I ever remove such disturbing
images from my children's young, innocent and carefree minds? This is not fair.
I am seething."
M-Net says a scheduler took a "unilateral
decision" and scheduled the Stephen King miniseries with an age restriction of
16 when she had a gap on the schedule to fill.
M-Net has to pay the two fines of R20 000
each before the end of December.
