2023-06-30 11:20:00
A pod of dolphins surrounds a female dolphin. The genitals are in full view. They take turns mating. The group leaves and the female dolphin is left alone. The entire sequence accompanied by a voiceover, dramatic music and audio with dolphin cries.
The wildlife scene, narrated in this way, seemed very similar to a viewer who went from discomfort to anger and took the trouble to make a formal complaint once morest New Zealand TV.
The entity that monitors the contents of the media analyzed the case, gave the reason and warned the television network.
Did the viewer have a censorship mood? No, or not at all. He complained that the documentary did not include the correct rating, which would have worked as a warning for families in front of the screen.
The “offensive scene” program is called Our Big Blue Backyard (Our Big Blue Backyard) and is a documentary series on marine life in New Zealand. It comes out on TVNZ, that country’s public TV.
“She is caught on the surface, and the males take turns. Once they have mated, they leave her alone”, says the announcer with a tone and music in the background. that apply a special tension to the sequence.
The complaint of an angry viewer
For Chris Radford, who was watching the episode, it was too much. “Although the behavior may have been natural, it is still a kind of violence inflicted on the female dolphin. The poor creature was trying to flee from the male dolphins, ”he argued in his presentation to the Broadcasting Standard Authority (BSA), the official eye on content in New Zealand.
Specifically, he marked the program should not have been broadcast on the air at a time of 7:30 PM with the “General” classification, identified with the initial G. That a warning was missing regarding what was going to be seen.
Channel response and decision
The channel responded that the documentary was “objective and educational” and that the scenes “should not be likened to human sexual violence”.
The supervisory authority went to detail and specified that the documentary showed “the male dolphins surrounding the female dolphin with their genitals in view and at one point a male visibly penetrates her… accompanied by audio of dolphins crying”
He did not question the channel’s assessment of the content, but gave the viewer the right: Said the show should have been rated PG, which a “parental guide” advises.
In support of its decision, the BSA cited research on the media consumption habits of minors that identifies “to animal suffering or torture as one of the contents that affect them”.
And he signed it to resolve the lawsuit: “We believe that the audience had the expectation of seeing a program rated ‘G’. But it showed scenes, graphic images and was dramatized in such a way that might have generated a rejection to some child looking and required adult guidance and supervision.”
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