Regulatory bodies in the media 

In this assignments I will be talking about the different regulatory bodies, their purpose, what they do and the different issues surrounding each of these regulatory bodies such as the ASA, BBFC,IPSO and Offcom. Each of these bodies regulates a different sector of the media by putting ratings on the different forms of content. They have the ability to for the producer to make cuts off take certain things of the air if they deem it harmful to audiences.

BBFC

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are responsible for the censorship and regulation of the film industry. To regulate the film industry they attach a ratting to films and on some occasions restrictions such as cuts so that is suitable to the audience. The BBFC's main goal is to prevent harm and offence and to make sure the right audience is watching the appropriate content for their age. The BBFC rates films with several ratings such as, U, PG, 12, 12A, 15, 18, R18. The problems surrounding the BBFC is the issue of whether you are preventing freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

http://dailydead.com/the-human-centipede-2-blu-ray-release-confirmed/

The human centipede two was banned until it made three minutes worth of cut, it was said that the film was too indecent which means that it violated the obscene publications act.

The bunny game is another example of a banned film, the film was released in 2010 but was banned in 2011 for "extreme levels of sexual violence as well as  as well as the excessive endorsement and eroticisation of sexual violence deemed the film to be unacceptable for its potential for being highly harmful under the video recordings act"


ASA

The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority)  are in charge of regulating advertisements. They are in charge of deciding whether a advert should be taken off the air, whether it should ever be on the air or what time it should be aired to prevent harm and offence to minors. The ASA tries to prevent harm and offence, misleading content as well as direct marketing and sale promotions. As well as taking the advert off air the ASA will warn the advertisers to not do the same thing again or use the same methods so advertise their product. Not all adverts are taken off the air if they are found to violate one of the regulations put in place some will be altered to prevent any of the offences above, however this is decided on the severity of the offence. The ASA bans the use of pornographic content as well as the condoning of both drugs and alcohol.

http://mle.mbro.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-785946-dt-content-rid-2114054_2/courses/2014-VP303F1/ASA-%20Advertising%20CAP%20Code.pdfb Here is the full list of the ASA's regulations.

Recently and advert on facebook advertising a cigarette phone case lighter was banned for condoning smoking which comes under the offence of condoning drugs. The com plaint said "It made smoking look appealing" this violates the rule of condoning drugs.

This is what the ASA said about the advert “We considered that the combination of the image of the lit cigarette and the encouragement to ‘Tag someone who can use this’ presented smoking in a positive light,” said the ASA.  

Here is the link to the official page showing the advertisement and the complaints the advert got.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/11/facebook-cigarette-lighter-ad-banned-for-condoning-smoking


Another banned advert was a tv advert for the Kazam tornado 348. The advert advertised the phone as the slimmest phone in the world, however the phone wasn't banned because of a violation of  the advert being misleading but instead was banned for "Objectifying women" the complaints mentioned things such as "Sexually suggestive". It was deemed that it was "Likely to cause serious  offence to some viewers".

Here is the banned advert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJja5SUdzY4&ab_channel=GamePundits

Ofcom

Ofcom (Office Of Communications) regulates both the tv and radio industry like the other regulatory bodies they make sure that as little as possible harm and offence comes to the audience. Like the other regulatory bodies they take complaints in and examine the program to see if it violates and of the rules put in place by. Ofcom can impose lots of different punishments for offenders of the rules. Ofcom can fine the producer (depending on the severity will decide the amount) repeated or severe violation will could result in a suspension or in a very severe case their license being taken away. 

Ofcom prohibits things such as religious biased, Product placement, violation of privacy, showing crime and drug use in a positive light.

The official link to their broadcasting code http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/

An example of a program tackled by Ofcom was the sachsgate incident. The sachsgate incident was when Russel Brand and Jonathon Ross did a pre recorded interview with actor Andrew Sachs, however he wasn't at the phone so they left some messages on his answer phone. Things got out of hand because of Russel Brand and Jonathon Ross leaving several inappropriate messages about Andrew Sachs and his daughter. The producer chose to broadcast this which turned out to be a big mistake because of the massive backlash from the public. Several high up people were calling for Russel Brand and Jonathon Ross to be either banned or to no longer be funded by license fee.

IPSO

The IPSO (Independent press standard organisation) replaced the PCC and now  regulates the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK instead. They regulate the newspaper industry with the editors guidelines. The editors code makes sure that accuracy is met as well as peoples privacy being upheld and as little as possible harm and offence is caused to the audience. The IPSO takes complaints on board and checks the legitimacy of the complaint and makes a decision on whether the publishers should be punished or not.

Here is the IPSO official website https://www.ipso.co.uk/IPSO/index.html

Here is the IPSO'S rulling on a article https://www.ipso.co.uk/IPSO/rulings/IPSOrulings-detail.html?id=8 The article was about a teachers unprofessional behavior towards her students, however the article was deemed to have had some facts which weren't entirely true, the article claimed that the teacher had contacted more than one pupil on multiple sites which was not exactly true. The fact was that it was one student in particular that was contacted. This violated the misleading part of the editors guide.

 PCC

The PCC (Press Complaints Commission) used to regulate the newspaper and magazine industry, however it has now been replaced by the IPSO. The PCC was disbanded because of their failure to regulate Rupert Murdoch. The multiple releases of private information from certain celebrities phones (Known as the phone hacking scandal). The PCC was quoted to be "Inadequate", "toothless" and as "Well meaning- but a joke" by several MPs as well as the current prime minister David Cameron. Earlier than the phone hacking scandals other criticisms where leveled at the PCC saying  that it wasn't as proactive, strong and didn't represent the public's wishes, Clive Soley, a labour MP was quoted saying "There are no consumer rights people on the PCC and that is a major failing.". 

Ethical problems with the regulatory bodies

The ethical problem with these regulatory bodies is censorship and how an argument can be made that freedom of speech is being restricted. The aggravation not only comes from the creators. A lot of complaints from the audience complaining that their freedom of choice has been taken away from them. So not only are the creators aggravated, claiming its censorship. The Consumers claim that their consumer choice has been taken away from them.