Calendar News
ITV Yorkshire, 22 May 2012, 06:00
Calendar News is ITV Yorkshire’s half-hour early evening local news programme.
The edition broadcast on 22 May 2012 ended with a montage of clips illustrating the exceptionally sunny weather being experienced at that time and accompanied by the song, The Sun Has Got His Hat On .
A viewer alerted Ofcom to the broadcast of offensive racial language in the first two lines in the second verse of the song:
The sun has got his hat on, hip-hip-hip-hooray
The sun has got his hat on and he’s coming out today
Now we’ll all be happy, hip-hip-hip-hooray
The sun has got his hat on and he’s coming out today
He’s been tanning niggers out in Timbuktu
Now he’s coming back to do the same to you
So jump into your sunbath, hip-hip-hip-hooray
The sun has got his hat on and he’s coming out today
Ofcom considered Rules:
Rule 1.14 The most offensive language must not be broadcast before the watershed.
Rule 2.3 In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context…. Such material may include, but is not limited to, offensive language, … discriminatory treatment or language (for example on the grounds of…race…).
ITV explained that the music was selected for the montage by an editor from the news library on the assumption that the title and words of the song were appropriate to the theme of the montage. It was assumed, because the tune and opening verse are very well known, that the rest of the song was equally innocuous. ITV said that the editor and other newsroom staff were completely unaware that the original version of the song contained the offensive language. Unfortunately, given this mistaken assumption, the whole song was not reviewed before being selected for the montage, nor was the edited item reviewed by the news producer before broadcast.
Shortly after the broadcast and the bulletin had come to an end, it was recognised that inappropriate language had been used. Calendar News took swift action to prevent the repetition of the language in a further broadcast, ensuring that the offensive language was dipped on the ITV1+1 service. Also an apology was broadcast on the later news bulletin that day stating,Finally Calendar would like to apologise for a piece of music we transmitted at the end of tonight’s six o’clock programme, which contained offensive language. It was transmitted in error.
Ofcom Decision: Complaint Resolved
Ofcom research on offensive language1 clearly notes that the word nigger is generally considered by audiences to be among the most offensive language. Therefore the use of this word before the watershed without any justification was a clear breach of Rules 1.14 and 2.3.
Ofcom however took into account that: ITV identified the error almost immediately on transmission, took steps to dip the sound during the repeat on ITV1+1, broadcast an apology during the later news bulletin the same day and took various further measures afterwards to ensure there was no recurrence of this problem.
In view of the action taken by the broadcaster, Ofcom therefore considers the matter resolved.
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