The National Geographic Channel received a warning from the National Communications Commission (NCC) last year for broadcasting a documentary involving violence and bloodshed at too early a time, potentially the first governmental penalty the channel has ever received in the 166 nations where the channel is available.
NCC Communications Content Department Director Jason Ho (何吉森) said yesterday that the commission had received quite a few complaints from parents when the channel first broadcast Ou Dede and His Daughters in 2007, a documentary on the Nu Tribe who reside in southwestern China.
Ho said parents complained that their children were terrified after watching the goat-beheading scene in the film, where blood was splattered everywhere. The documentary was broadcast at 1:30pm, Ho said.
“It [beheading the goat] was not a religious ritual and the goat was killed because of a feud between two families,” Ho said. “The scene lasted about two minutes and was not blocked by any mosaics. Neither did the channel warn the audience about the gory scene to come.”
Following the complaints, the NCC turned the case over to an independent media content consulting panel, mainly consisting of media researchers and representatives from non-governmental organizations.
Ho said a majority of the members on the panel ruled that, while the film was a documentary, the channel should still have followed the ratings system and broadcast it at a later hour. The channel then received a warning for violating the regulations on ratings in the Satellite Radio and Television Act (衛星廣播電視法).
Meanwhile, the channel also received a note from the NCC about The Riddles of Dead Diva Mummy, another documentary on the anatomy of a female mummy from the Han Dynasty.
“The documentary explicitly showed the internal organs of the mummy,” Ho said, “The channel did warn the audience about the scene, but members on the panel thought it was more appropriate that the documentary was aired at a later hour.”
Mindy Lee (李敏), marketing director at the channel’s Taiwan office, said National Geographic has been following a strict content review procedure. The decision caught it off guard, she said.
“We try to comply with government regulation as much as possible, especially if the authority in charge is concerned about issues such as this one,” Lee said, adding that they would report the case to the channel’s head office.
Yang Li-chou (楊力州), who won a Golden Horse Award for My Football Summer, a documentary on a junior high school soccer team in Hualien, said that media outlets have to fulfill their responsibility to society. To avoid tampering with creative content, television channels should warn the audience beforehand about the possibility that the content could offend.
Yang, however, objected the use of the mosaics, particularly when the program is dealing with cultural issues.
“Sometimes, mosaics are not just mosaics. They make it look as though you despise and disrespect the value system of a certain culture,” Yang said.
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