A music video for the Lana Del Ray song "Born to Die" was broadcast on C4. It contained the lyrics "Let's go get high" and briefly showed the artist smoking what the complainant alleged was a marijuana cigarette. The Authority determined that this did not breach the law and order standard: the lyrics and footage did not glamorise drug use and did not encourage viewers to break the law or otherwise promote or condone criminal activity.
Not Upheld: Law and Order
A promo for The Graham Norton Show’s Christmas special showed a photograph of a couple dressed as Mary and Joseph holding a dog in swaddling clothes. The Authority did not uphold the complaint that this breached the good taste and decency and discrimination and denigration standards: the content was a light-hearted attempt at humour as opposed to a criticism of Christians and would not have offended most viewers in context. Further, the innocent lampooning of religious figures comes within the broadcaster’s right to freedom of expression.
Not Upheld: Good Taste and Decency, Discrimination and Denigration
An AO comedy programme, A Night at the Classic, contained extensive coarse language and sexual references. Given the late time of broadcast (10pm), the specific pre-broadcast warning and the AO classification, the Authority concluded that the programme did not breach standards of good taste and decency and responsible programming.
Not Upheld: Good Taste and Decency, Responsible Programming
The ZM Morning Crew hosts ran a competition called “Racial Profiling”, in which the hosts and a contestant were asked to guess whether individuals who had committed certain offences in the United States were “black, white or Asian”. The Authority did not uphold good taste and decency, discrimination and denigration, or responsible programming complaints: the segment was an attempt at humour and satire and the outcome as broadcast demonstrated flaws in racial stereotyping; the broadcast would not have offended most listeners in context and was not socially irresponsible; and although some of the content was challenging it did not reach the high threshold required for encouraging denigration of, or discrimination against, any of the groups referred to as sections of the community.
Not Upheld: Good Taste and Decency, Discrimination and Denigration, Responsible Programming
An item on Sunday profiled a young man who was a recidivist car thief. It showed brief footage of a car he had stolen, including its number plate. The Authority did not uphold GW’s privacy complaint. The complainant and her husband were not identifiable through the footage of their car and number plate, and no private facts were disclosed about them that would be considered highly offensive to an objective reasonable person.
Not Upheld: Privacy
During Overnight Talkback with Bruce Russell, the host and a caller discussed a meteorite exploding over central Russia and causing a shock that injured many people. The host made comments to the effect he would rather it happened in Russia than in New Zealand. The Authority did not uphold the good taste and decency complaint, as the host’s comments were expressed in a light-hearted and flippant manner and would not have offended or distressed most listeners in context.
Not Upheld: Good Taste and Decency
A One News item reported on recently released statistics for domestic violence in New Zealand that showed an increase in the number of deaths caused by family violence. It contained interviews with the Labour Party spokesperson for Women’s Affairs and with a Christchurch Women’s Refuge representative. The Authority did not uphold the complaint that the item breached standards because it did not explicitly acknowledge that women can be perpetrators of domestic violence and men the victims: the item focused on the statistics and did not comment on the gender of perpetrators and victims, and did not specify that the increase in deaths was among women only.
Not Upheld: Controversial Issues, Accuracy, Fairness, Discrimination and Denigration, Responsible Programming
During the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, characters made two brief references to smoking “weed” and “leaf”. The Authority did not uphold the complaint that the references breached the law and order standard: they did not necessarily relate to marijuana or glamorise its use and did not encourage viewers to break the law or otherwise promote or condone criminal activity, when taken in the context of a fantasy film.
Not Upheld: Law and Order
An item on Fair Go, broadcast on TV One, included an interview with a group of Christchurch women who wanted to cancel their gym contracts due to temporary closure or relocation of premises following the February 2011 earthquake. The item’s focus was on two gyms in Christchurch and whether they were within their rights to enforce the contracts or were being unreasonable. The Authority upheld the complaint that the item breached the fairness and accuracy standards: it contained comments from two women which suggested their issues related solely to relocation, that the complainant’s gym refused to refund them and that they would be significantly out of pocket, but it omitted important information about the women’s individual circumstances relating to the contracts, creating a misleading impression which was not mitigated by the opportunity given to the complainant to respond. The Authority made no order.
Upheld: Accuracy, Fairness
No Order
During the Farming Show, broadcast on NewstalkZB, the host told a short anecdote about his recent experience at a bar in Queenstown, claiming he was refused service after having a “couple of beers” and commenting that it was “poor form” on the part of the bar. The Authority upheld the complaint that this breached the fairness standard: the host’s comments were inappropriate, and he abused his position by airing a personal grievance and naming the bar on air in retaliation, which had the potential to detrimentally affect the complainant’s business and commercial interests. The Authority made no order.
Upheld: Fairness
No Order