Liz Longhurst disappointed by the crap law that persecutes the innocent and doesn’t pick up on the guilty

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Thanks to emark See article from bbc.co.uk

Liz Longhurst, the woman who fought for a ban on violent online pornography after her daughter’s murder, has said she is disappointed it has not been more effective. She said: I was glad that the law had been passed in 2009 but I did not feel it was necessarily going to have a tremendously marvellous effect. I was rather surprised that really very few cases have been brought. There have been lots of cases of [connected with] child pornography but not many with adult pornography. Longhurst said she was very sad to discover the man who murdered landscape architect Jo Yeates had viewed violent pornography on the internet. [I wonder if she ever sheds a tear for the innocent people persecuted by the law over a jokey bad taste video clip, or else those people who would never dream of harming anyone, and who's tastes in porn would have been better left private?]

Publishers Descended into Savage Censorship…Lord of Flies publisher demanded that William Goldring write out allusions to christianity

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See article from thisiscornwall.co.uk

The author of a classic novel which charts the descent into savagery of a group of marooned schoolboys was ordered to remove a Christian theme from the book before it was published. The surprising insistence of publishers editing William Golding’s seminal work Lord of the Flies has emerged in correspondence released on the centenary of the author’s birth. As well as telling Golding to steer clear of Christianity, his publishers also ordered details of nuclear holocaust to be struck from the pages. In 1954, Golding was an author struggling to find a publisher for his first book, Lord of the Flies, an allegorical tale of civilisation crashing into barbarism. It had been rejected 10 times, including by Faber and Faber, who then relented and finally put the book into print. Correspondence with publishers, which have not been made public until now, forms a central part of new display at Oxford’s Bodleian library. Also on display for the first time is the rejection note from Faber which called the novel an absurd and uninteresting fantasy. Rubbish and dull. Eventually the book was championed by a publishing executive, Charles Montieth. The letters reveal Montieth objected to what Golding called the theophany of the novel, the appearance of God to man, and the obvious Christianity of Simon, another of the boys marooned on the island after the plane crash.

Dangerous Lyrics…Ofcom to cure all the world’s social ill’s by reiterating its ban on strong language in song lyrics

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See article from m.guardian.co.uk

Radio stations are to get new guidance on avoiding sexually explicit songs. [Oh dear, does that mean some unfortunate employee has got to actually listen and try to work out what on earth the musicians are singing anyway. Sounds an impossible task to me]. The BBC and commercial radio broadcasters will have to take more care with sexually explicit lyrics, particularly in songs by rap artists, as part of a continuing crackdown by Ofcom on content that is inappropriate for children. UK radio broadcasters are to be issued with new guidance by the TV and radio censor to address the supposed problem of broadcasting sexually explicit lyrics at times when children are listening. An Ofcom spokeswoman said: Ofcom takes its role in protecting children from offensive language on the radio very seriously. We are concerned that there have been a number of recent cases where offensive language was broadcast, some at times when children were particularly likely to have been listening. That is why we held a meeting with the radio industry this week to discuss the issues. We intend to publish guidance by the end of the year to clarify the rules in the broadcasting code.

Limp Concerns…Ofcom investigate error allowing Adult Channel softcore to be shown unencrypted in a freeview

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See article from stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk

Adult Channel 2 August 2011, 22:50 to 23:00 and 23:50 to 00:00 Adult Channel is a channel broadcast under a licence held by Playboy TV UK/Benelux Ltd. Between the hours of 22:00 and 05:30 it is a subscription services providing softcore adult material subject to encrypted and restricted access. The channel however includes some sections broadcast without mandatory restricted freeview access to promote the channel and encourage viewers to subscribe. On 8 August 2011 Playboy alerted Ofcom to a scheduling error which had resulted in content normally shown encrypted being broadcast without the restrictions for ten minutes on two separate occasions after 22:00. On assessing the content, Ofcom noted the material broadcast at 22:50 started with about 30 seconds of non-explicit images of a man and woman appearing to have sexual intercourse. This was followed by some advertisements, channel idents and channel promotions to encourage viewers to subscribe to the service. The last seven minutes of the material showed a woman in a garden performing a striptease set to music. The second piece of material broadcast at 23:50 started with about 30 seconds of a film including a brief image of a topless woman. This was followed by some advertisements, channel idents and promotions to encourage viewers to subscribe to the service. The last seven minutes of the material showed a woman in a photographer’s studio performing a slow striptease set to music. This material included a close-up shot of the woman naked and stroking her genitals that lasted approximately eight seconds, and included close-up images of the woman’s genitals. Ofcom considered Rule 1.18 ‘Adult sex material’ – material that contains images and/or language of a strong sexual nature which is broadcast for the primary purpose of sexual arousal or stimulation – must not be broadcast at any time other than between 2200 and 0530 on premium subscription services and pay per view/night services which operate with mandatory restricted access. In addition, measures must be in place to ensure that the subscriber is an adult. Ofcom Decision: Breach of Rule 1.18 Ofcom considered the material broadcast at: 22:50 showing strong but not explicit images of a man and woman appearing to have sexual intercourse; and 23:50 that included clear images of the woman masturbating and close ups of her genitals, was adult sex material, i.e. contained images of a sexual nature which were broadcast for the primary purpose of sexual arousal or stimulation. Being broadcast between 22:00 and 05:30 but without mandatory restricted access, it was therefore in breach of Rule 1.18. In Ofcom’s view, given the nature of the material and that it involved a compliance failure that had occurred previously, Ofcom considered whether to take further regulatory action in this case. However, given that Playboy TV reported this error to us in a proactive and timely fashion, we do not consider further regulatory action is necessary on this occasion.