OTTAWA – The f-word in The F-Word should not air before 9:00 pm, says the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC).
The F-Word is one of several reality/information cooking programs featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who is well-known for being aggressive and demanding in the kitchen as well as for his frequent use of profanity. The series is broadcast on BBC Canada at 8:00 pm.
The CBSC received a complaint about the April 9, 2009 episode, though the complainant noted that the program was on every night, saying that the program contained numerous instances and variations of the f-word. In its response to the complainant, BBC Canada noted that the 8:00 pm broadcast was accompanied by a viewer advisory alerting viewers to the coarse language, and the show’s 18+ rating icon.
The CBSC’s National Specialty Services Panel examined the complaint under Clause 10(a) of the CAB Code of Ethics, which states that programming that contains coarse language intended exclusively for adult audiences shall not be broadcast outside of the Watershed period of 9:00 pm to 6:00 am.
The CBSC has stated in numerous previous decisions that the f-word constitutes language intended for adults, so the Panel found BBC Canada in violation for airing The F-Word before the appropriate hour.
The Panel explained its decision as follows:
“It should also be noted that putting a viewer advisory on a program does not get the broadcaster ‘off the hook’ with respect to other Code requirements, like scheduling. Fundamentally, a broadcaster that wants to air a program containing any of the words in the f-word family has two choices; namely, run the program after the Watershed, or, if before the Watershed, only after muting, bleeping or otherwise editing out the offending language. It goes without saying that just because the name of the program is The F-Word, which is not itself offensive, does not entitle a broadcaster to avoid selecting one of the two foregoing options. If using ‘fuck’ or one of its derivatives is essential to the character of the program, as would appear to be the case in the matter at hand, the sole choice is a post-9:00 pm broadcast.”
