THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY of Ireland (BAI) has partially upheld a complaint made against RTÉ 2FM’s Eoghan McDermott after the presenter asked the national broadcaster’s director general who she would like to kick in the testicles.
McDermott, during an interview with Dee Forbes, asked her who she would most like like to kick in the genitals. The complainant found the comment offensive and discriminatory towards men and was of the view that it promoted violence against men.
The complainant stated that the comment was insensitive and was unjustified. He added that Dee Forbes, in her role of director general, should have corrected the presenter.
According to the BAI report, the broadcaster said the complaint referred to a question posed during a regular feature on the Eoghan McDermott Show, in which high profile guests are asked to respond to a range of questions.
“The specific question that was the subject of the complaint has been posed to both male and female participants in the past and the broadcaster states that it is intended to entertain. The broadcaster acknowledged that the phraseology used did not meet the complainant’s standards.”
The broadcaster stated that it never intended to cause offence but acknowledged that “offence has been caused in this instance”.
However, the BAI’s committee only partially upheld the complaint.
“The committee noted that the complainant argued that the comment which is the subject of the complaint, is offensive towards men. The committee noted that the code acknowledges that programming material may cause offence to some audience members and as such the test for compliance with the code is undue offence.
“In this instance, given the context of the programme and audience expectation, the Committee did not feel that the comment could be deemed unduly offensive and therefore did not uphold this element of the complaint.”
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