BDSM MEDIA NEWS!!!!
12 may 2011
Rihanna's S&M video 'too explicit for daytime broadcast'
Ofcom to issue warning to music TV channels after broadcaster airs racy video before watershed
Source: www.guardian.co.uk - The Guardian - UK
UK - Music TV broadcasters are to receive a dressing down from the media regulator after an unedited version of Rihanna's S&M video, containing scenes of "sexual bondage, dominance and sadomasochism", aired during the morning when children could be watching.
Music TV broadcasters are to receive a dressing down from the media regulator after an unedited version of Rihanna's S&M video, containing scenes of "sexual bondage, dominance and sadomasochism", aired during the morning when children could be watching.
Ofcom, has called broadcasters to an emergency meeting on the scheduling and compliance of "highly sexualised" music videos such as S&M, after finding music channel WTF TV in breach of its broadcasting code for airing the Rihanna promo at 11.25am.
The regulator is planning to lay down the law to all music TV broadcasters because this is the second incident of inappropriate scheduling of such content recently. Ofcom recently ruled against the broadcast of a racy Flo Rida video on MTV and Channel 4's 4Music that it deemed too sexualised for a pre-9pm watershed transmission.
"We will ... be requesting that broadcasters who transmit such programming attend a meeting at Ofcom to discuss the compliance of such material," Ofcom said.
The media regulator also said that it will "shortly be issuing new guidance about the acceptability of material in music videos broadcast before the watershed".
Ofcom censored WTF TV for broadcasting an unedited version of the S&M video which included images of Rihanna being dragged into a press conference, being restrained behind cellophane, dragging gossip blogger Perez Hilton on a leash while whipping him and in various sexual positions in "rubber and latex fetish outfits".
Other scenes featured the use of gag balls, the word "slut" written vividly and various sexualised lyrics in the song itself.
The regulator received a complaint that the music video was "completely unsuitable for daytime broadcast".
WTF TV argued that Rihanna is a popular artist and that the S&M video was laden with "irony" and did not "contain images of dominant/submissive practices in a pornographic style".
"It is artistic and not dark or seedy," the broadcaster said, while admitting that "in hindsight" the title may have caused problems.
Ofcom said the song "clearly and repeatedly focused on sex, bondage and sadomasochistic sexual practices as a theme".
The regulator added that a number of the scenes "could have potentially dangerous consequences if imitated by children".
