Click to play videoNew Delhi: British TV regulator Ofcom on Thursday has asked Channel Four’s reality television show Celebrity Big Brother to apologise on-air over racist bullying of actor Shilpa Shetty.
Ofcom's investigation found that Channel Four made serious editorial misjudgments which was compounded by a failure of its compliance process resulting in a national embarrassment on-air for Britain.
Ofcom has therefore, found Channel Four in breach of the Broadcasting Code and has imposed a statutory sanction on it.
The statutory sanction imposed by the British media watchdog directs Channel Four to broadcast a summary of Ofcom’s finding on three separate occasions.
The summary will be aired at the start of the Big Brother 8 launch programme on Wednesday, the following morning's re-versioned repeat and the first eviction show.
Additionally, Channel 4 is to publish transcripts of a series of previously unheard and potentially racist conversations that took place within the Big Brother house.
Ofcom has also found that Channel Four failed to appropriately handle the material so as to adequately protect members of the public from offensive language and behaviour.
The incidents inside the Big Brother house that Ofcom has spoken about are:
- Remarks about cooking in India (transmitted January 15, 2007)
- “F*** off home” comment (transmitted January 17, 2007)
- “Shilpa Poppadom” comment (transmitted January 18 and 19, 2007)
Ofcom’s finding and the direction also apply to S4C because it also broadcasts Channel Four’s Celebrity Big Brother programme.
Ofcom launched its investigation after 46,000 or more complaints were made over the Shilpa Shetty racism row in Celebrity Big Brother in January.
Complaints to both Channel 4 and Ofcom snowballed after contestants in the house, including Jade Goody, were involved in the alleged racist bullying of Shilpa.
Shilpa, who later won the contest, had insisted after the show came to an end that Goody "didn't mean to be racist".
Meanwhile, Labour MP Keith Vaz, who led protests in Parliament over the issue and introduced Shilpa to Tony Blair, has called for Channel Four Chief Executive Andy Duncan’s resignation.
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