Friday, February 03, 2012

South African E.TV to Fight Fine Over Airing Gaddafi Lynching

SA Time: Saturday, February 04, 2012 3:53:47 AM

Gaddafi scenes: e.tv to fight R35 000 fine

February 3 2012 at 01:07pm
By STAFF REPORTER

TV channel e.tv has vowed to appeal against its R35 000 fine from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) for airing graphic footage of Muammar Gaddafi’s death on their news channel.

The BCCSA said scenes of the brutal attack on the late Libyan dictator, aired in October on e.tv’s eNews channel, was “violent” and contravened the code by
broadcasting “unnecessary detail” of the incident.

It also said the news service was in contravention of the subscription code clause because the channel had failed to show an advisory warning before the images were shown.

A fine of R10 000 was payable. The remaining R25 000 was for fines of R5 000 for each of the five time slots aired on October 22, during which scenes of the attack were repeated.

The channel has also been ordered to air the BCCSA’s finding on the footage before the end of this month.

Patrick Conroy, head of e.tv news, took to Twitter to explain the channel’s next move: “@eNewsChannel and e.TV reviewing BCCSA #Gaddafi ruling with our lawyers. Plan to appeal. Will not be commenting further ahead of appeal.”

janis.kinnear@inl.co.za - Cape Argus

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