MPs grill Channel 4 over sexualised depiction of a child in BFGW adverts

17 October 2012
Named and shamed: Channel 4's chairman, Lord Burns, and chief executive, David Abraham, before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Tuesday (above: screengrab from parliament.tv)
  • Sexualised depiction of a 15 year old girl "a clear breach of the advertising code", says Damian Collins
  • "I think that's irresponsible: I would hope you think that's irresponsible too", says Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe
  • Channel 4's behaviour over Big Fat Gypsy Weddings has "caused immense distress and upset in the Gypsy and Traveller community," says Culture, Media and Sport committee chairman John Wittingdale
  • Footage available online on Parliament website

THE GOVERNMENT'S select committee on Culture, Media and Sport rounded on Channel 4 yesterday for what it termed the "immense distress and upset" the broadcaster has caused the Gypsy and Traveller community.

Lord Burns, the chairman of Channel 4, and the channel's chief executive officer David Abraham were faced with a 24-minute barrage of questions about their company's conduct around the Big Fat Gypsy Weddings series, in particular the posters used to advertise series 2 of the show.

Damian Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone, observed that the sexulised depiction of a child was in "clear breach of the advertising code", and that what Channel 4 had done was "irresponsible".

In rare scenes of agreement between MPs from across the parliamentary divide, Labour's Ben Bradshaw and Gerry Sutcliffe joined forces with Collins and committee chair John Whittingdale, both Conservative, to condemn the broadcaster's wrongdoings.

Having previously cleared the posters for nationwide use, the Advertising Standards Authority reconsidered its decision at appeal and upheld complaints against two of the posters: both featured the strapline "BIGGER. FATTER. GYPSIER", in one across the face of a young boy, and in the second across the torsos of two girls, one of whom was a child at the time the image was taken.

The latter image had been doctored to hide the girls' family members (they were at a private party) which "removed it from its context", according to the committee.

David Abraham, the chief executive of Channel 4, was invited to apologise publicly for the injury caused and stated that he was "happy to do so" on the day.

He insisted that while "sections of the community" had clearly been offended by the posters, those who had worked with Channel 4 were happy to be involved with Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

Despite the programmes' continuous use of a 'factual' voiceover which made serious factual errors including the suggestion that "grabbing" was a Gypsy tradition, both Abraham and Channel 4's chairman Lord Burns staunchly defended the merits of the TV series.

"The only thing in question is the advertising, not the programme," said Lord Burns.

Mr. Abraham called the ASA's judgements "subjective". He added that in his opinion Channel 4 "get it absolutely right" most of the time.

Footage of the committee hearing is available to view on Parliament website