Days before the new series of Big Brother is due to go live, producers of the reality programme have been told to apologise on air for the Shilpa Shetty race row.
LONDON: Days before the new series of Big Brother is due to go live, producers of the reality programme have been told to apologise on air for the Shilpa Shetty race row.
Channel 4, which broadcasts the show, was found guilty by OFCOM, the media watchdog, of “serious editorial misjudgements”.
OFCOM told Channel 4 to make three on-air apologies at the start of the Big Brother 8 series next Wednesday. No fine was announced.
During Celebrity Big Brother’s January series, OFCOM received a record-breaking 44,500 complaints from the public about the racist and abusive treatment meted out to Shetty by her housemates, Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd, Jo O’Meara, and Jack Tweedy.
OFCOM said it had explosive unseen footage of racist behaviour of the gang of four. In one instance, the four chant behind Shetty’s back a limerick that includes the lines: “There once was a house that was happy/ until that f****** Paki!” OFCOM said the producers of Big Brother were fully aware of the chants.
Channel 4 drew severe criticism from the watchdog for failing to protect the viewing public from the race row and singled out three instances when the broadcaster failed to “handle the situation appropriately and contextualise”.
Shetty, who became a household name in the UK thanks to the row, told Channel 4 in an interview last month that she holds no grudge against anyone. “Not the people who head Channel 4, not the people who were in the house with me,” Shetty said. “I’ve moved on.”
Keith Vaz, Labour MP of Indian origin, who took the race row to the British parliament, said OFCOM’s strictures vindicated the complaints made by viewers about the continual broadcasting of racist comments. “Channel 4 has behaved in an arrogant way, which has shown contempt for the code of broadcasting,” Vaz said. He renewed his January call for Channel 4 chief Andy Duncan to resign.
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