OTTAWA – Comments about race relations and riots made during a Sun News Network public affairs program were not unduly discriminatory and therefore did not breach any broadcast codes, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) said Wednesday.
The CBSC examined an episode of the show ByLine with Brian Lilley originally broadcast on August 9, 2011 and rebroadcast on August 13. Lilley and guest commentator Michael Coren talked about the riots that were occurring in and around London, England at that time. Coren argued that the riots were not motivated by poverty, as some rioters claimed, but rather were related to the “gang culture” in predominantly black neighbourhoods. When Lilley asked Coren about the fact that the rioters were communicating amongst themselves via digital mobile devices, Coren responded, “It’s not about BlackBerrys. It’s about black thugs.”
Coren’s “black thugs” comment and his overall view that the riots were caused by “black culture” generated “a number of complaints”, according to the CBSC. In response, Sun News argued that Coren was simply providing his opinion on a controversial political issue.
The CBSC’s National Specialty Services Panel examined the complaints under various provisions of the CAB Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code. The majority of the Panel concluded that the discussion dealt with political and social issues and did not constitute abusive or unduly discriminatory comments about black people in general, nor did it contain unduly negative portrayals of that group. There were, therefore, no violations of any Code provisions.
One adjudicator dissented because she felt that Coren had unfairly attributed all the blame for the riots to the black community.
