OTTAWA – A religious call-in program breached a number of broadcast codes after airing comments regarding sexual orientation, as well as some inaccurate information, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled.
The CBSC examined various episodes of a Christian program entitled It’s Your Call which airs on CITS-TV (CTS Ontario) Monday through Saturday from 1:00 to 2:30 AM. The host of the show usually presents a topic of discussion for each episode and encourages viewers to contact the show by telephone or Internet to voice their opinions. The CBSC received multiple complaints about different episodes of the program that aired between July 2011 and February 2012, alleging that the programs contained negative comments about homosexuals.
The CBSC’s Ontario Regional Panel examined the complaints under the Human Rights clauses of the CAB Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code which prohibit abusive or unduly discriminatory commentary on the basis of sexual orientation, as well as the Religious Programming clause of the CAB Code of Ethics which states that programs shall not convey attacks on identifiable groups.
In its decision, the Panel noted that religious programs are allowed to declare homosexuality a sin, but that It’s Your Call crossed the line by allowing program participants to accuse homosexuals of a malicious “agenda” to “recruit” and “brainwash” children, and of having a propensity to commit violent crimes such as rape targeting straight people.
The Panel also concluded that the program contained inaccurate information about various related issues, such as details about Toronto’s school curriculum, and that those inaccuracies violated the Full, Fair and Proper Presentation clause of the CAB Code of Ethics.
