Canadian Broadcast Standards Council

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters.

The Council's membership includes more than 730 private sector radio and television stations, specialty services and networks from across Canada, programming in English, French and third languages. As such, the Council allows the private broadcasting industry to be self-regulating; it acts as an intermediary in the regulatory process, which is governed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The CRTC itself generally hears complaints against only the few CBSC non-members (most notably public broadcasters such as the CBC), as well as reviews of CBSC decisions; the latter rarely lead to any additional action.

Although first suggested by private broadcasters as early as 1968, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council was not created until 1990.

Council objectives

The Council has five primary objectives:

• Assist in the application of broadcast standards developed by the private broadcast industry.
• Inform the public of such standards and the Council's role in self-regulation of the private broadcast industry.
• Provide a forum for public complaints should such standards be violated.
• Provide third-party recommendations to private broadcasters and complainants, should complaint resolution not be achieved.
• Inform broadcasters of emerging societal trends and develop ways to adjust broadcast standards to meet them.

Comparison with similar organizations

Citations have been issued not only for violations of the content guidelines themselves but also for failing to provide sufficient information to viewers, i.e. missing or inadequate viewer advisories, or missing ratings icons.

Controversy

In January 2011 the Council’s Atlantic Regional Panel ruled against CHOZ-FM re the playing of the song “Money for Nothing” written by Mark Knopfler and Sting as recorded in 1985 by Dire Straits (CBSC Decision 09/10-0818). The council ruled that Canadian radio stations must mute or otherwise edit out the word "faggot" before airing the original version of the song. The CRTC has asked the council to review their ban after they received numerous complaints about the ban.

In March 2012 the Council ordered Global Television must apologize to its viewers for not warning them about the violence from a scene where Elmer Fudd kills Bugs Bunny with a rifle during a July 23, 2011 airing of the Family Guy episode "Stewie B. Goode". The Council stated "The panel finds that the scene was definitely somewhat gruesome and uncomfortable to watch. It recognizes, however, that the scene was intended to satirize the violence found in that type of cartoon program. The gag was somewhat tongue-in-cheek since Family Guy itself is an animated program that sometimes contains violence."

See also

• Accurate News and Information Act
• Broadcasting Act (1991)
• Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
• Censorship in Canada
• Fascism
• List of telecommunications regulatory bodies
• Media bias
• Radio and Television News Directors Association
• Censorship

External links

• Canadian Broadcast Standards Council