OTTAWA – A drama that aired on TVA in January failed to display the classification icon for the required 15-16 seconds and air appropriate viewer advisories, The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has determined.
Les jeunes loups is a ten-episode television drama series that was broadcast Monday’s at 9:00 PM on TVA. It focuses on a team of young journalists attempting to present the truth to its readers in its newspaper, Le Matin, and its online newspaper, Le Webmatin, while disregarding established rules.
A viewer complained about the episodes of Les jeunes loups that TVA aired on January 13 and 20, 2014. Although “13+V” classification icons were displayed during the two episodes, viewer advisories relating to violence, coarse language and sexually explicit scenes were not issued, according to the complaint.
With respect to viewer advisories, TVA explained that broadcasters may determine how these advisories are presented for each episode. TVA further noted that viewer advisories indicating that the program targeted a “13+” (13 years of age and older) audience and contained scenes of violence (“V”) were prominently displayed at the beginning of the show and coming out of each commercial break.
The Quebec Regional Panel considered the complaint under Clause 11 (Viewer Advisories) of the Canadian Association of Broadcaster’s (CAB) Code of Ethics and Articles 5 (Viewer Advisories) and 4 (Classification System) of the CAB Violence Code. It concluded that TVA violated Clause 11 of the CAB Code of Ethics by failing to broadcast proper viewer advisories concerning the use of coarse language during the broadcasts, and that it breached Article 4 of the CAB Violence Code by displaying the classification icon for fewer than the required 15-16 seconds during each broadcast.
Created in 1990 by Canada’s private broadcasters, the CBSC currently administers seven codes which deal with ethics, equitable portrayal, violence, news and journalistic independence. Nearly 800 radio stations, satellite radio services, television stations and specialty and pay television services across Canada are members of the Council.
