Ch 9 punished for gay sex scene

Ch 9 punished for gay sex scene

The Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) has hit the Nine Network with an “enforceable undertaking”, its most severe punishment, over a gay sex scene in the television series Dante’s Cove.

ACMA was responding to a complaint alleging that a December 9 episode of the show screened at 10.30 at night should have been given an R rating.

“It had detailed and explicit scenes of oral sex etc and in one scene you got a full frontal view of the man’s genitals,” wrote the complainant.

ACMA found the offending scene contained significant quantities of, “unambiguous visual detail” including, “thrusting during simulated fellatio”, “thrusting during simulated intercourse” and “genital nudity in a sexual context”.

“The length of the scene and the unambiguous visual detail, including genital nudity, are such that the intimate sexual behaviour is not discreetly implied or discreetly simulated. It therefore cannot be accommodated within the AV classification.”

Nine argued in its defence that a flaccid penis should be as acceptable as naked breasts and that the scene did not contain depictions of “genital penetration, oral stimulation … genital contact or other forms of explicit sex.”

Nine’s chief classifier Richard Lyle told other media this year he believed ACMA had a bias against male-to male-sex, a claim  denied by ACMA Chair Chris Chapman.

Nine’s classifiers will now have to attend training approved by the Director of the Classification Board. However it is hard to determine what impact this will have as the Classifications Board itself assessed the first season of Dante’s Cove as

MA15+ for DVD for its violence and horror themes — not its sexual content, which the Board deemed would have been acceptable for an M rating by itself.

Episodes of Dante’s Cove broadcast over the next two years will now have to be edited and Nine must provide weekly reports to ACMA on any complaints it receives about the show.

Nine must also provide reports to ACMA on its overall compliance every six months for the next two years.

Nine already planned to edit season two of Dante’s Cove which is R rated on DVD, but the ruling means that it will have to edit season three as well — also deemed MA15+ by the Classifications Board.

As a result of the ruling, Nine was unable to comment on the matter.

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14 responses to “Ch 9 punished for gay sex scene”

  1. The Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice was updated at the beginning of this year to remove the requirement that sex scenes at the MA15+/AV15+ level must be “discreet” and replace it with the requirement that they must not exceed “strong” in impact. So long as ACMA are reasonable, this should mean that any scene classified MA15+ by the Classification Board will also be acceptable for broadcast on commercial television, meaning that there is consistency across the board between what you can see on a DVD, the ABC, SBS and the major channels. Therefore, Nine should be able to repeat the episode again without any problems.

  2. This so-called censorship must end now!!!

    If it was a man and a woman or a woman and a woman it would be no problem at all (it would continue to be viewed) – but since it was two men it madly stirs-up mass panic!!!!

    What is wrong with people in 2010?????

    A bit of cock in ass never hurts anyone channel 9!!!!

    Channel 7 is no different – since they were the ones who outed a NSW Labor pollie who is our greatest advocate for gay-rights on the voting record MP David Campbell and remember 2 years ago when channel 7 keeped the job of a drug-dealer Todd McKenney on the Dancing with the stars show [oh the hyprocracy]!!!!

  3. I’m going to start mailing WRITTEN complaints to the ACMA over the content of some home and away scenes. They REPEATEDLY have “who is the father of my baby” storylines on that show which airs at 7pm. One promiscious female character had it happen to her TWICE!! you’d think she’d learn! Think of the children Home & Away!!

  4. acma is just code for antiquated cunts morons and associates.
    The specious pretext and justification for nanny state censorship is a hallmark of a sick and ill society that can’t realise the difference btw reality and television.U can only imagine the heated discussions at their secret freemason board meetings “was it a thrust or not…?” with half the married str8ty tatties havn hardons under the board table.Meanwhile its totally ok 2 villify and humiliate gay folks with the footy show and the like causing untold damage and violence toward gay ppl. Yup our taxes at work. Way to go Australia!

  5. I wish I could be surprised. This sort of hypocrisy is stock standard these days. One day the correcting of this injust issue will be the milestone of another era of acceptance and tolerance. One day….

  6. So the classification people made the mistake of classifying it M in the first place.

    Chanel 9 then broadcasts the show as rated by the official classification.

    Then Channel 9 is punished for showing a program that should be rated R but was rated M… by the classifiers?

    Sounds like the only people who did wrong was either the classifiers or the ACMA. Either way chanel 9 in this case is the victim of someone elses incompetance.

    Besides.. aren’t ‘community standards’ part of our classification system? Last i heard the majority of the non-children community of Australia are porn-watchers. So the community standard isn’t really being taken into account in our classification system!

  7. I just watched Watch “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” by Kirby Dick. It’s brilliant, and topical.

    It seems that we here in Australia have just the same problems with our own censorship boards as America has with their own The Motion Pictures Association of America’s rating system.

    It is now better to watch this series on DVD… or download it?

  8. 1.Episodes of Dante’s Cove broadcast over the next two years will now have to be edited, and

    2.Nine must provide weekly reports to ACMA on any complaints it receives about the show, and

    3.Nine must also provide reports to ACMA on its overall compliance every six months for the next two years, and

    4.As a result of the ruling, Nine was unable to comment on the matter.

    The ACMA is acting as an Ecclesiastical Court and is applying penalties to apprehended offences which have breached a set of ethics created by who?

    Obviously, that set of ethics categorises homosexual sexual intercourse as abnormal and requires depictions of homosexual intercourse by actors in plays to be excluded from television plays broadcast to the general public.

    Would the ACMA apply penalties to a broadcaster if that channel broadcast a play in which actors performed a gay marriage?

  9. The whinger probably had to record the evidence and watch the scene a few times just be sure it was offensive.

    If anything warrants censorship it’s those dreadful sitcoms like Two and Half Men or How I Met Your Mother – human rights’ violations of the first order.

  10. One can only wonder why such a narrow-minded compalinant was watching Dante’s Cove for in the first place if they are so offended by male nudity.