e.tv has been fined R10 000 by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) for broadcasting "distasteful" sexually suggestive trash programming at 17:30 when children are watching in which a man started stripping, got an erection and had to be pulled off a woman after groping, in the show Eye for an Eye.
Although the BCCSA found e.tv guilty of contravening the Broadcasting Code, e.tv didn't feel that the TV channel did anything wrong to show it during the timeslot.
e.tv had the audacity to tell the BCCSA that the programme "carried a PG10 rating and was broadcasting just before news at a time when a large number of children would not be in the audience".
The BCCSA received complaints about Eye for an Eye, a revenge court show in which a judge awards "payback" instead of money.
In the episode on e.tv, filled with sexually suggestive content inappropriate for children, a man, scantily clad, was forced by a judge to strip and dance.
"It was disgusting for me and my kids to see a guy dancing sexually suggestively and actually having an erection, which he apologised for. There was groping and the guy had to be pulled off the lady," wrote one complainant.
Another complainant also wrote about the "highly distasteful programming on e.tv", saying that "I hope the programming manager of e.tv is fired and decent programming aired".
"The programme Eye for an Eye was aired on e.tv at 17:30 and a man was ordered by the judge to strip in front of several girls with suggestive sexual content. At that point I stopped watching as it was utter trash," wrote a complainant.
"I cannot believe South African viewers are are being bombarded on a daily basis with such trash".
The BCCSA found that "the material should not have been broadcast at such an early timeslot when a large number of children were bound to have been watching television". The BCCSA said that Eye for an Eye "should have been broadcast at least after 20:00" and that e.tv contravened the Broadcasting Code.
"The material broadcast was of an adult nature and should not have been broadcast at that time of day," the BCCSA found in its judgement. "In our view a reprimand would not address the contravention".
e.tv has until 29 August to pay the fine of R10 000.
