The ITC announced this morning that it has issued formal warnings to Channel 4 and Yorkshire Television. The warnings relate to three editions of Channel 4’s TFI Friday for bad language and two episodes of Yorkshire’s The Governor for explicit violence.
The three TFI Friday shows concerned were broadcast in February and March and two of these involved Black Grape singer Shaun Ryder using language ‘unacceptable for the time of transmission’ which broke the ITC Programme Code. The ITC considered imposing a fine but took into consideration the unreserved apologies of Channel 4 and Chris Evans, the programme’s presenter. The warning states that stricter controls must be exercised in the planning and content of programmes to ensure compliance with the Programme Code and particular attention paid to the time of broadcast.
The formal warning to Yorkshire Television is for sequences of The Governor broadcast on 23rd and 30th March at 9.05pm which breached the ITC Programme Code on violence. The scenes in question involved the rape and kidnap of a female character and the assault of a prison officer which were criticised for their graphic nature. Yorkshire defended the scenes but assured the ITC that the level of violence would be lower in subsequent episodes.
Channel 4 has previously received two formal warnings (over Brookside and The Word) from the ITC but it is the first time Yorkshire Television has been reprimanded.
ITC: 0171 255 3000
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