Congratulations to People First NZ and the other members of the public who fought and won a battle over broadcaster Paul Henry calling singer Susan Boyle a “retard”. The Commission is delighted that the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s (BSA) very strong decision recognised that people with intellectual disabilities deserved respect and dignity. That’s the good news.

Television New Zealand broadcast a prepared statement on the Breakfast programme on Monday 26 July. And that’s the bad news. In my opinion, the nature of the statement was profoundly disappointing. Television New Zealand abandoned its celebrity status promotion of presenters and referred throughout to an unnamed “presenter”. There was no apology and nor was the statement available on its website content.

The Commission is providing Manahau subscribers with the full text of the statement so that members of the disability community can promote it widely among their networks. We have taken the liberty of adding the presenter’s name [Paul Henry] in brackets.

Last year during ‘What’s In The Mags’, Breakfast screened comments about the singer Susan Boyle. The comments were made by a Breakfast presenter [Paul Henry] and concerned Ms Boyle’s intellectual disability.

TVNZ upheld viewers’ complaints that the comments breached the broadcasting standard requiring Good Taste and Decency. The presenter [Paul Henry] also made a public statement saying he had not intended to cause offence.

Eleven complainants were not satisfied with the action taken by TVNZ, and referred their complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

The Authority agreed with the complainants, finding that TVNZ had taken insufficient action to remedy the breach of standards. It noted that no statement or apology had been made on the Breakfast programme, and that the presenter’s [Paul Henry's] public statement was inconsistent with his comments and behaviour in the item.

The Authority said that to mock and belittle a person on account of her intellectual disability was contrary to common decency and a clear breach of the Good Taste and Decency standard.

The Authority ordered Television New Zealand to broadcast this statement.

While the broadcast statement was weak, the BSA decision is a landmark decision and is worth reading in full. Here it is at http://www.bsa.govt.nz/decisions/2010/2010-001.htm

Judy McGregor