The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that an Ontario TV “religious call-in program” broke the ethics code of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Broadcaster Magazine reported.
Listeners complained about the program, CTS-TV’s It’s Your Call, because of “negative comments about homosexuals.”
According to Broadcaster Magazine, the council ruled that under the ethics code’s “Religious Programming clause,” “religious programs are allowed to declare homosexuality a sin, but that It’s Your Call crossed the line by allowing program participants to accuse homosexuals of a malicious ‘agenda’ to ‘recruit’ and ‘brainwash’ children and of having a propensity to commit violent crimes such as rape targeting straight people.”
The council’s decision, “issued” in late August, reported that the complaints were filed by “two separate individuals” concerning a total of “six specific episodes” of the program aired between July 2011 and February 2012.
The ruling found that “The comments were made either by the hosts themselves or by callers and the hosts then made no attempts to refute or temper the remarks.”
According to the decision, the council weighed the complaints against three tenets of the ethics code and one from the “Equitable Portrayal Code.” The ethics codes tenets included “human rights” and “Full, fair and proper presentation.” That tenet reads:
“It is recognized that the full, fair and proper presentation of news, opinion, comment and editorial is the prime and fundamental responsibility of each broadcaster. This principle shall apply to all radio and television programming, whether it relates to news, public affairs, magazine, talk, call-in, interview or other broadcasting formats in which news, opinion, comment or editorial may be expressed by broadcaster employees, their invited guests or callers.”
The ruling noted that the station has to “announce the decision…once during prime time within three days…and once more within seven days…during the time period in which It’s Your Call was broadcast.”
We have written to CTS, which airs It’s Your Call, for comment and will update with any response.
Hat Tip: J-Source