BROADCASTER MediaCorp TV has been fined $15,000 by the Media
Development Authority (MDA) for airing a show that featured a gay
couple and their adopted baby.
The MDA said yesterday that an episode of an acquired home and
decor series, Find and Design, "normalises and promotes a gay
lifestyle". In the episode - aired on Channel 5 at 7.30am on
Sunday, Jan 13 - the host helped a gay couple turn their game room
into a nursery for their adopted baby.
The MDA objected to several scenes of the couple and their baby
together, and the host's acknowledgement of the pair as a
family.
It said they breached the Free-to-Air TV Programme Code, "which
disallows programmes that promote, justify or glamorise gay
lifestyles".
The MDA had consulted the Programme Advisory Committee for
English Programmes, which frowned on the episode's presentation of
a gay relationship as an acceptable family unit, and its airing
during family viewing hours.
Mr Kenneth Liang, executive vice-president of programming and
production for Channel 5, told The Straits Times that regulations
were open to interpretation.
He said: "In this case, we overstepped the line. We understand
the OB (out-of-bounds) markers in this area more clearly now, and
this won't happen again."
This is MediaCorp TV's second breach of the code.
In 2002, it was fined $10,000 for airing offensive footage from
a sex-scandal video of Taiwanese legislator Chu Mei-Feng, on
Channel 8's News 8 at 10.
Source: Asiaone
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Showbiz/Story/A1Story20080425-61734.html
