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The ITC in its ruling said that while it accepted that edits had
been made to the films to reduce the effect of some scenes and remove
others altogether and recognising that Bollywood films do contain
stylised violence, all three films contained numerous violent scenes,
including frequent fist fights, beatings and gun fights, which the
ITC considered unsuitable for afternoon transmission.
B4U is a subscription movie channel in the UK and is available
on cable and satellite. It was granted an ITC licence in May 1999
and began broadcasting in the UK in August 1999. An official release
says B4U has breached the ITC Programme Code on two occasions for
wrongly scheduled films (January 2000 and April 2001), the ITC Advertising
Code on three occasions (August 1999, January 2001 and August 2001),
and has recorded one breach of the ITC Programme Sponsorship Code
(February 2001).
The fine on B4U followed just a day after the ITC slapped a £10,000
penalty on Swedish broadcaster Kanal 5 for breaches of the Programme
Code. ITC last imposed a financial penalty in July 2001, which was
£100,000 for LWT for breaches of the Sponsorship Code.
Kanal 5 was penalised for transmitting a sexually explicit image
throughout daytime television, including during programmes likely
to appeal to children. The monochrome still image appeared in a
trailer for an evening schedule that included a sex advice show,
Fraga Olle. The image graphically showed a couple having sex. The
image was taken from the opening credits for Fraga Olle (the general
acceptability of the programme itself and its scheduling at 10pm
or 10:30 pm, was not an issue).
The trailer was aired 67 times between 20 and 26 March 2002, from
as early as 8 am and appeared frequently throughout the day, evening
and night.
The Commission judged that the trailer breached Sections 1.2 and
1.6 of the ITC Programme Code (family viewing and the watershed
and sexual portrayal before the watershed) and that the breach demonstrated
a serious lack of rigour in the channel's approach to compliance.
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