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BBC presenters are to be banned from “aggressive behaviour” and unjustified swearing under new guidelines published today.
In an unprecedented step, the BBC has called on the public to have the final say on the new editorial guidelines put forward by the BBC Trust today.
Under the rules, producers must seek to “editorially justify” any swearing. Use of the three worst swear words (c**t, mother****er and f**k) must be approved by the controller of the TV or radio station. The guidelines add: “Strong language, especially the strongest language, is subject to careful consideration and appropriate referral.” The Trust also called for “careful judgments” over the use of swearing immediately after the 9pm watershed.
The BBC was fined £150,000 by Ofcom after broadcasting lewd answerphone messages left by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs last year. Lesley Douglas, former Radio 2 controller, resigned last year after it emerged she had approved the broadcast of the pre-recorded show without listening to it.
The new guidelines state: “BBC content must respect human dignity...Some comedy can be cruel but unduly intimidatory, humiliating, intrusive, aggressive or derogatory remarks must not be celebrated as entertainment.”
The BBC's editorial guidelines are reviewed every five years. Licence-fee payers can give their views on the BBC Trust website until 24 December.
BBC Trustee Richard Tait said: “Public acceptability is constantly changing, so it is right that we reflect on standards.”
Reader views (16)
graham norton discusses the most intimate, personal things; he is filthy rude.
- Rose Peel, london
What a bunch of bloomin' nitwits! They really take the flippin' biscuit.
- Keith, King's Cross, London
The BBC is a reflection of the continuing downspiralling of standards in the UK. Each time when I go back "home" I am appalled at how people swear openly on the streets, in restaurants etc. Society has a lot to answer for nowadays - and to top it all anybody and I mean anybody from kids 5 years upwards can watch TV as they have a TV in their bedroom but where is parental control nowadays? Doesn't exist anymore.
- Peter, Vienna, Austria
The BBC leeches should pay the tax payer 10p back for every swear word broadcast. How about that for a tax back scheme.
- Tax Free Tv, London
We don't pay out a hefty licence fee to the BBC to be always juggling the off button off. That's the difference between them and non paying terrestrial channels.
- Andrew, Witney
If the Beeb is looking to reflect public opinion, why is it tightening up on certain words, which are much more acceptable than they used to be? Many more people, these days, are comfortable with the knowledge that a word itself cannot be offensive; it's how it is used that can cause offence. Given that so many of us use these words in the office, why are people still so upset by them on TV?
- Suzanne, London
The BBC? Ah yes, they're the corporation I fund to the tune of £150 pa for the (on average) less than one program a week I actually watch.
- Bob, Cheam
Regardless of if you think what Ross did was right or wrong - he can't be blammed for the transmission after the event. Either internal procedures within the BBC went wrong, or someone in authority agreed for it to be broadcast.
By the way, the Jonathan Ross show already goes out at 10.30 anyway. .
- Kev, London
Even now every TV has an off button.
- Paul, London
Never mind for swearing. Some of the "adult" scenes now shown in Corrie and Eastenders just before 8 are unsuitable for kids. Eastenders is by far the worst culprit, screen it larer, after 9 or sort it out BBC Stalinist tax leeches.
- Richard , Duke Of Leeds, City of Leeds
Standards of broadcasting by the BBC are at gutter level thanks to the calibre of its chief executives/senior managers. For them to describe their foul mouthed presenters as "talented" is an insult to those who pay their salaries, and unfortunately their their lack of decency and morality cascades from the top down to the studio floor and licence fee holders' money is being used to pay individuals whose grossly limited vocabulary and lack of command of the English language means they have to resort to using obscenities as they know no other means of expression.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK
People didn't 'over react'. The fact was Ross, at nearly 50, pushed through a to be aired segment of that show. It revealed Ross as a sleazy old man. It could have winged it as a joke if it had been an inexperienced, misguided new to the biz greenhorn 20or 30 years younger.
On so many levels it left Ross looking like a perverted dirty old bully. He did it because he had the power to do it and no one stopped him. Simple as.
- Paul, Hackney, London
We have had many years in which swearing has escalated and we now see the result in society. Perhaps we should have a similar period of many years where the BBC should not permit any swearing and that any in films should be edited out. We might then be able to see how things improve. Personally, I feel the time has already come when gratutitous and offensive language should no longer be tolerated on television - whatever the channel.
- Patrick, St Albans, UK
Shame. Rossy will have to be aired later then, else it wont be worth watching if it is tamed down. People still moan about the Ross/Brand joke. I still think it was hilarious & people over-reacted & now BBC after 9pm will be like CBBC.
- Dom, London
Why is Ross still on the BBC? It remains a mystery to most. The BBC would be far better off without him.
- Phil Jones, London UK
"They think it's all over". It will never be over for Jonathan Ross. (Brand's stock in trade was edgy outrage). Ross represented the highest paid mainstream establishment talent of the BBC across a spectrum of it's radio and TV programming. Single-handedly he made the corporation a figure of national contempt and derision, as well as giving its enemies the clout for its future destruction. Possibly break-up or reduction or withdrawal of the licence fee. Ross will never escape the tag of shaming and disgracing the BBC.
- Max, London
