TV News

Britain's Channel 4 gave viewers an inside look at the U.K. adult industry in October when it aired the four-episode drama series Adult Material . Now, American fans will get to see the porn-themed series for themselves, when the series debuts on the HBO Max streaming service December 11.

The series stars British actress Hayley Squires as Jolene Dollar, a fictional, aging porn performer who struggles to balance a career in the adult industry with the responsibilities of motherhood to her three children. Veteran actor Rupert Everett co-stars as a porn producer who oversees Jolene Dollar's scenes.

UK critics responded enthusiastically to the show, with one saying that Adult Material, raises big questions about sex, consent and power -- and will have you both laughing and crying.

Adult Material has also been sold to Australia's SBS Viceland where the first episode was broadcast on 1st December.

Fox News returns to UK on streaming app and won't be subject to Ofcom impartiality rules. The Fox News International app allows UK audience to stream the politically incorrect right leaning channel.

Fox News left the Sky News package three years ago after widespread unease about biased news reporting. Sky claimed that the departure was for commercial reasons due to the station's low audience figures in the UK.

Fox News will not be seeking a broadcasting licence this time around.

GB News, a channel chaired by Andrew Neil, offering a similar opinionated slant on current events, is set to launch next year, while Murdoch's News UK is preparing to unveil its own TV news service.

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has welcomed the decision of the UK's TV censor, Ofcom, condemning Abu Dhabi TV channel for broadcasting an interview that it claimed were confessions of Qatari citizen Hamad al-Hammadi during his arbitrary arrest and detention in Abu Dhabi prisons in 2013.

Ofcom said that the channel, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), which has a licence from Ofcom, broadcasted an interview on June 22, 2017 alleging they were confessions of a Qatari intelligence agent, who was discrediting the UAE. Ofcom said that broadcasting the interview against al-Hammadi's will, who was tortured and ill-treated in prison, was a severe breach of the principles of fairness and privacy set out in the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.

Ofcom found that Mr Al-Hammadi was treated unjustly or unfairly in the programme as broadcast and that his privacy was unwarrantably infringed both in the obtaining of the footage of him and in its broadcast.

Ofcom also considers that the breaches of Rules 7.1 and 8.1 of the Code are serious and Ofcom is therefore putting the Licensee on notice that Ofcom intends to consider the breachesfor the imposition of a statutory sanction.

BBC Radio 1 will not play the original version of Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl this Christmas, seemingly because it thinks its audience of snowflakes will be easily offended by the lyrics.

Radio 1 said young listeners were particularly sensitive to derogatory terms for gender and sexuality. It will instead play an edited version with different lyrics sung by MacColl. A BBC spokesman said:

We know the song is considered a Christmas classic and we will continue to play it this year, with our radio stations choosing the version of the song most relevant for their audience.

The new edited version changes two lines - one swapped for an alternative version in which MacColl sings You're cheap and you're haggard in place of You cheap lousy faggot.

In Radio 1's newly-edited version, another unspecified line, sung by Shane MacGowan in the second verse, has a word removed entirely.

But the 1987 original will still be played on Radio 2, while 6 Music DJs can choose between the two versions.

The duet is one of the most enduring Christmas pop songs, having returned to the UK top 20 every year since 2005. MacColl originally sang the censored line on Top of the Pops in 1992. The same wording was used by Ronan Keating and Moya Brennan in their 2000 cover version. When Ed Sheeran and Anne-Marie performed the song in Radio 1's Live Lounge in 2017, she opted to call him a cheap lousy blagger.

US religious campaigners of the Catholic League have complained about the latest episode of Family Guy. The 8th November episode launched a few barbs at the catholic church in an episode about a Christening.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue has written to Family Guy producers, Walt Disney, to complain about the jokes poking fun at the church. He asked:

• Why are so many in Hollywood bent on disparaging our Judeo-Christian heritage?
• Why do they single out Catholics?
• Why can't they treat us the way they treat Muslims and gays?
• Why is Fox muddying the name of Walt Disney?

Donohue detailed the segment of the episode he found offensive:

Meg (The Daughter): Where's the priest?

Lois (The Mother): Oh, the Church ran out of priests months ago because of all the diddling. Now they just have a rabbi fill in.

The scene then cuts to a rabbi at a baptismal font where he makes this comment while doing the baptism.

Rabbi: Welcome to the Christening. Now, before the child goes in the water, has it been at least 20 minutes since she ate?

Joe (Father of Girl being baptised): Yes, rabbi.

Rabbi: Let's dunk this kid like a doughnut. I hereby Christen this child in the name of Jesus Christ, who was killed by we-don't-know-who, it's not important. The last thing we want to do is point fingers.

After the Baptism, the rabbi makes a joke about the Eucharist.

Rabbi: Congratulations, sweetie, you're a Christian. From now on, every Sunday you get to eat a hard cookie and pretend it's a guy.

Parents Television Council is a US moralist campaign group. It writes:

The Parents Television Council called out Disney for allowing blatant sexual harassment to occur on ABC's The Bachelorette in its October 20th episode rated TV-PG. The male contestants on the show were forced to strip during a dodgeball game, with some contestants expressing clear discomfort.

PTC President Tim Winter said:

Asking television contestants to strip naked sounds like it would come at the direction of Harvey Weinstein, not from Walt Disney-owned ABC. Such programming is outrageously tone-deaf, especially as Hollywood continues its reckoning in the #MeToo era. If anyone in a position of authority in corporate America asked his/her employees to strip in order to keep their jobs, the executive would be fired. But Disney not only enables The Bachelorette to do just that, it promotes the show, rates the program as appropriate for young children (TV-PG), and ostensibly encourages -- and even celebrates -- blatant sexual harassment.

Disney's corporate schizophrenia is astonishing. While it adds warning slates in front of its classic movies about culturally insensitive content, the company is more than comfortable fostering sexually exploitative content without any such consideration. We call on Disney and the producers behind The Bachelorette immediately to cease this -- and any other demonstration -- of sexual harassment, and to stop asking audiences to be entertained by it.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER has recently been airing late at night on E4. A couple of episodes were cut for DVD release and so it is interesting to compare these with what is being shown by E4 in 2020.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3: Dead Man's Party is an episode of the action horror TV series  by James Whitmore Jr.
Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon and Alyson Hannigan.

Cut by the BBFC for 12 rated 2000 DVD. Uncut on US and UK TV.

In Dead Man's Party, at around the 35m mark, Giles (played by Anthony Stewart Head) is in his car. He is trapped by marauding zombies and his car keys are outside on the road, dropped after a tussle with one of the zombies. So in order to flee, Giles hotwires his own car. The BBFC cut about 2s to remove the hotwiring moment (when Giles pulls-out the wires from underneath the glove box, and touches them together to start the car's engine).

The DVD removes this, but E4 are showing the uncut original broadcast version. I also believe a head-butt has been removed from the DVD edition, but this also remains in the E4 broadcast edition.
 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 6: Bargaining: Part 1  is an episode of the action horror TV series  by David Grossman.
Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon and Emma Caulfield Ford.

Pre-cut prior to be passed 12 without BBFC cuts for 12 rated 2003 DVD. Uncut in the US.  

In Bargaining - Part One, at around the 30m mark, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) is preparing a magic spell in a field, and a fawn walks onto screen. She grabs it, stabs it and bleeds it out. The UK DVD editions were pre-cut by Fox, who presumably felt it better that they cut the scene entirely, rather than have the BBFC potentially risk asking them to remove stuff.

On the DVD you see the fawn being grabbed, and Willow suddenly grabbing and thrusting a dagger that lies to her left (screen-right), but whilst you see the fawn struggle before dying, you don't see the actual mutilation of it. There is then a noticeable audible jump, and we see Willow conclude the spell, with blood all over her hands.

Now with E4, it's a hybrid version that is being broadcast. The scene is uncut, in that there are no audio jumps - as it was originally intended and broadcast, however, once Willow grabs the dagger and thrusts it, the image has been ever-so-slightly reframed, and zoomed-in, so you can see just moments of the fan thrashing about (its head pops into the bottom part of the screen a couple of times), but the not sight of the dagger actually killing it, nor it dying from the wound, and nor then the sight of the dead carcass. Then when the scene changes to Willow with blood on her hands, the framing is back to how it should be.
 

E4 vs Fox

Whilst these episodes have aired late at night, after 23:00, its interesting that they are leaving some moments uncut, but not others. I wonder if its E4 who have made the hybrid edit from Becoming - Part One or whether Fox has now decided the sight of a beloved character killing and mutilating a baby deer was just inappropriate and too distasteful, and have now -themselves - re-edited the offending killing, to soften what was a very shocking and brutal moment?
 

Aspect Ratios

The US DVD releases are uncut, and in 4:3. The UK, and Australian DVD releases, and the E4 versions, are all in 16:9 (1.78:1 ratio), as were the original UK BBC2 broadcasts, from back in the day. (BBC2 aired this episode uncut, well after 23:00 hours, if memory serves!)

Whether any new DVD or Blu-Ray releases would now be in 4:3 or 16:9, and feature the original uncut version, the hybrid E4 version, or an even more toned-down edition of this scene, I guess we'll never truly know. (Joss Whedon, the show's creator, wants the show to only be seen in 4:3, across all episodes. Europe and modern-TV channels, want the show in 16:9, so there's been a consistent battle between him, the fans and TV networks, over which version is the correct one, and there are lengthy debates online as to which is best and who is right.)

Also, despite Seasons 1, 2 and 3 all airing in 4:3, and Seasons 4, 5, 6, and 7 in 16:9, which is how BBC2 aired them and which the UK and Australian DVD's replicate the US releases are all in 4:3. E4, however, have broadcast all episodes and all Seasons in 16:9 (and the first two Seasons especially, don't look very well-framed, as people's heads are tightly framed, tops of heads have been cut-off, and everything just looks awkward and zoomed-in).

Erect penises appeared on broadcast television on Monday reportedly for the first time in a new taboo-shattering Channel 4 documentary. Me & My Penis , which aired at 10pm, showed footage of eight erections as men pose for naked photographs while discussing male issues.

The erections are shown in an entirely artistic photographic context, and Channel 4 feels that filming them doesn't break any rules.

The subjects filmed for the documentary are photographed by London-based British artist and fine art photographer Ajamu, whose radical portraits of the male body have pushed boundaries and provoked cultural debate.

While he shoots their intimate photographs, the men discuss their varied experiences -- from the pleasures of sex to stories of infertility and sexual abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, homophobia and mental health. The programme, which airs at 10pm, will show footage of eight erections as men pose for naked photographs while discussing male issues.

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has previously said there is no ban on showing erections on TV, but it would have to be justified by the context.

A Jamaican minister is set to make a formal complaint over a BBC Three sketch from the show Famalam , which she has described as outrageous and offensive. Kamina Johnson Smith, Jamaica's minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, tweeted:

This is outrageous and offensive to the incredible country which I am proud to represent along with every Jamaican at home and within our diaspora... I will immediately be writing formally on this! #StopThisShow

Ramocan told HuffPost UK:

It is unbelievable that the, BBC an institution with an international reputation for trustworthy broadcasting, could find itself in the gutter of promoting such harmful and destructive pornographic material that can only serve to damage the morals and values we seek to encourage in our young people.

This broadcast which serves to tarnish and insult the image of Brand Jamaica must be immediately pulled from the BBC programme. I call on all well-thinking listeners and viewers to join us in this call.

Nathaniel Peat, Global Jamaica Diaspora Council lead for the south UK and chairman of Jamaicans Inspired said:

The program is over sexualised, regressive, discriminatory, derogatory and has stereotypical racist tropes especially at a time when Black Lives matter has highlighted the need for a more balanced and better portrayal of black people in the media.

It is deeply upsetting that the national broadcaster has chosen to promote this highly explicit content on a public forum such as twitter that has exposure to youth as young as 14, what type of image does this set in their minds when there already is a lack of positive black role models that are seen in the British media.

The clip has also been slammed by high commissioner of Jamaica to the United Kingdom Seth George Ramocan, who claimed it serves to tarnish and insult the image of Brand Jamaica.

A preview of the segment titled Jamaican Countdown , a parody of the long-running game show Countdown , includes jokey language used towards the female character selecting numbers and letters. Part of the sketch also shows the silhouette of a man, referencing the stereotype of black men having large penises.

The programme is made with a cast of black British actors, and presumably the programme makers too.

The BBC posted the following response on its website:

Famalam is a well-established, award-nominated BBC Three sketch comedy show that is now in its third series. It stars some of the UK's best comedy talent and explores aspects of contemporary life from a black perspective.

Like many sketch comedy shows Famalam finds humour in a wide range of scenarios and regular viewers who are familiar with the tone of the show will know that it has a reputation for challenging stereotypes and confronting social issues. We can assure you that the intention of this sketch isn't to diminish Jamaican people or Jamaican culture, and nor is there any intention to cause offence.

The Latvian TV censor has banned the Russian propaganda channel RT (formerly named Russia Today). The channel was also recently banned in Lithuania.

Latvia's National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) on July 21 banned RT claiming incitement to hatred. It was prompted by a 60 minute broadcast on July 10, in which remarks on Ukraine are described as hate speech. Ivars Abolins, head of the NEPLP, said:

We believe it is an incitement to hatred against Ukraine, against the Ukrainian people. We are absolutely convinced that the European Commission will also agree with our view, and if a second infringement is detected within a year, Rossija RTR can be banned on the territory of Latvia.

RT responded citing a statement from the Association for International Broadcasting which strongly criticised the Latvian media regulator. A letter from AIB commented:

We wish to protest in the strongest terms on what appears, on the face of it, to be a political decision that has no regulatory legitimacy.

The banning of the RT channels appears to flow from the misinterpretation by the Council of the ownership structure of RT and the alleged control of RT by Dmitry Kiselyov who is sanctioned by the European Union.

We draw to your attention that RT disputes the reason for the Council's ban on its licensed channels and that it has not been granted the right to present evidence of the ownership and control of the company. This is an extraordinary omission by a media regulator in a western democracy.

One of the Philippines' largest broadcasters, ABS-CBN, has been refused a new licence after being forced off air in May.

Government critics say the refusal is directly connected to the channel's criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte. In particular the broadcaster had refused to broadcast Duterte's campaign ads in 2016.

On Friday, an overwhelming majority of a parliamentary committee rejected as undeserving ABS-CBN's request for a 25-year extension of its franchise.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, commented:

This is a black day for media freedom in a country previously regarded as a bastion of press freedom and democracy in the region, Today's vote to deny the franchise renewal is an astounding display of obsequious behaviour by Congressional representatives, kowtowing to Duterte by agreeing to seriously limit media freedom in the Philippines.

Although a commercial operation, ABS-CBN is very similar to the BBC. With more than 70 years of TV and radio history, it has shaped the Filipino psyche with entertainment and news programmes for all of the family. But like the BBC, its critics say it represents the rich and powerful, as an old, mainstream media offering, is out of touch with the will of social media users here

Lithuania's TV censor says it has banned the broadcasts of the state-controlled Russian television channel RT, effective Thursday, following a similar decision made in Baltic neighbor Latvia last week.

The Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania said the decision follows recommendations of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry to close the channel, saying the Russian who allegedly controls RT, Dmitry Kiselev, is currently blacklisted by the European Union. This decision is motivated not by violations but the fact that Mr. Kiselev is on the list of persons under the EU sanctions. The same decision was taken in Latvia and now in Lithuania said Mantas Martisius, chairman of the Lithuanian commission.

The ban covers five different RT channels: RT, RT HD, RT Spanish, RT Documentary and RT Documentary HD.

China 24, News Hour
CCTV News, 27 August 2013, 12:00 and 14 July 2014, 21:002

CCTV News broadcast China 24, a news programme which reported on the arrest of Peter Humphrey and included footage of him appearing to confess to a criminal offence. It then broadcast a follow up report during News Hour, which reported on Mr Humphrey's subsequent conviction and included footage of him apologising for having committed the offence. He was named in both programmes, although his face was blurred.

Ofcom found that:

• The programmes included footage of Mr Humphrey which had the potential materially and adversely to affect viewers’ perception of him. The Licensee did not take sufficient steps to ensure that material facts had not been presented, omitted or disregarded in a way that was unfair to Mr Humphrey.
   

• The Licensee had not provided Mr Humphrey with an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond to the allegations of wrongdoing being made about him in the programmes as broadcast.
   

• Mr Humphrey had a legitimate expectation of privacy in relation to the filming and subsequent broadcast of the footage of him without his consent. In the circumstances, Mr Humphrey’s legitimate expectation of privacy was not outweighed by the broadcaster’s right to freedom of expression and the audience’s right to receive information and ideas without interference. The Licensee had therefore unwarrantably infringed Mr Humphrey’s privacy in respect of the obtaining of the material included in the programmes and in the programmes as broadcast.

Ofcom also considers that the breach of Rules 7.1 and 8.1 of the Code is serious. We are therefore putting the Licensee on notice that we intend to consider the breach for the imposition of a statutory sanction.

A radio presenter who questioned the issue of white privilege in relation to the Black Lives Matter protests has been suspended.

Manx Radio took Stu Peters off air after Wednesday's programme in which a black caller challenged him for writing all lives matter in an online forum.

I've had no more privilege in my life than you have. I'm a white man, you're a black man, he told Jordan Maguire.

Manx Radio said it had referred the issue to the Isle of Man's Communications Commission.

Manx Radio's managing director Chris Sully said:

Stu Peters will not be presenting the Late Show whilst an investigation takes place. We await [the Commission's] guidance on any potential breach of the Broadcast Code.

Offsite Comment: The march of progressive censorship

7th June 2020. See article from spectator.co.uk by Tom Slater

It seems strange that a TV censor should get involved in a very tense global situation with China vs the western world. One would have thought that this should be better handled by diplomats and the Foreign Office. Perhaps Ofcom have been working with the government behind the scenes.

Anyway Ofcom has published a series of decisions against news reports from China's propaganda channel CGTN. Ofcom said that news reports broke thier rules with biased coverage of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Ofcom said it was minded to formally sanction CGTN, the English-language rolling news channel owned by the Chinese government, for a serious failure of compliance after it failed to represent anti-Beijing viewpoints as protests raged across Hong Kong in late 2019.

Ofcom noted that CGTN often focused on violence by protesters against police officers, while downplaying attacks by the authorities on the public. Its output also parroted the views of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong government without giving sufficient airtime to people with alternative views, while focusing on economic disruption to businesses rather than the reason they were being disrupted.

It remains to be seen how China will respond to the sanctions. In March, Beijing revoked the visas of many American journalists after Donald Trump restricted the activities of CGTN and other Chinese outlets in the US.

CGTN said viewers understood it was representing a different view and the channel was simply serving its purpose to inform our international audiences of the Chinese perspective, which is often alternative to the mainstream western media.

Wizards of Waverly Place is a 2007 - 2012 USA children's comedy fantasy TV series by Lev L Spiro.
Starring Selena Gomez, David Henrie and Jake T Austin.

"Wizards of Waverly Place" focuses on the Russos. A typical family, which includes a mom, Theresa Russo; a dad, Jerry Russo; a son, Justin Russo; a daughter, Alex Russo; and another son, Max Russo. The kids and the family live normal lives but what their friends don't know is the kids are wizards in training and the dad was a former wizard!

The new Disney+ streaming service for children is continuing to be pulled up for censorship. The latest example is that the channel has been blurring out cleavage in Wizards of Waverly Place. There is nothing overly sexual about the scenes being blurred, just every day street clothes.

The TV series was made by Disney and the cleavage was considered perfectly OK about a decade ago. Maria Canals-Barrera's slight hint of cleavage is what offended Disney censors and required the fogging.

Disney has not responded to questions about the sorry episode.

TrueVisions is the dominant pay TV provider for Thai cable and satellite TV. The company broadcasts all foreign news channels with an annoying 5 minute delay so that a Thai news censor can hit the 'censor' button should the channel report about a sensitive news topic.

Now the True company seems to have got in a spot of bother by openly posting a job listing for an international news censor on the nation's biggest job site.

TrueVisions has been criticized for its post on JobsDB for an employee to monitor inappropriate news from 17 foreign news channels and talk shows and report them to superiors.

According to the job post, any content deemed to violate Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the section known as lese majeste, which makes criticism of the royal family punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The job listing did not indicate salary or other information about the job. Today, it had been replaced by a message reading , We're very sorry. This job no longer exists.

A High Court justice has dismissed a Russian Today complaint that a massive £200,000 fine imposed by Ofcom last year was disproportionate. The court endorsed the TV censor's decision to fine RT for a breach of its impartiality rules.

RT had issued legal complains that Ofcom's decisions were a disproportionate interference with RT's right to freedom of expression and said other stations had received smaller fines for more serious breaches.

Following an investigation in 2018, Ofcom found that RT had broken TV impartiality rules in seven programmes discussing the Salisbury nerve agent attacks. Ofcom said RT had failed to give due weight to a wide range of voices on a matter of major political controversy.

RT has yet to respond to the ruling.

1300 complaints were sent to the US TV censors of the FCC about Shakira and J.Lo's Super Bowl halftime show

The Federal Communications Commission received 1,312 complaints from viewers whingeing about the sexy dancing of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.

The singers danced on poles, twerked, belly-danced and made more than a few sexually suggestive gestures.

Some of the complaints claimed that their children were exposed to a 'porno' show. Other adults claimed the show encouraged sex trafficking. And some people were upset that no public warnings were given before the show, which one viewer said was less a musical act than an X-rated strip club performance.

A lot of the complaints included threats about boycotting Pepsi. Well, not even just Pepsi. People said they planned to also boycott the Super Bowl, its halftime shows and even the entire NFL.

Ofcom has imposed a £75,000 fine on Talksport Ltd in relation to its service Talk Radio for failing to comply with our broadcasting rules, and required the service to broadcast a summary of our findings.

Between 16 March and 6 August 2018, Talk Radio broadcast three episodes of the George Galloway programme dealing with the following issues: the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury on 4 March 2018, and allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

In Ofcom's Decisions published on 28 January and 25 March 2019 in issue 371 and issue 375 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin, Ofcom found that each of the three programmes failed to maintain due impartiality and had breached Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code.

Ofcom has also imposed a £20,000 fine on Baltic Media Alliance Limited in relation to its service NTV Mir Baltic for failing to comply with our broadcasting rules. The broadcaster must also broadcast a summary of our findings on the channel.

On 2 April 2018, Baltic Media Alliance Limited broadcast a news programme, Today, which included a discussion about the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury on 4 March 2018.

In Ofcom's Decision published on 11 February 2019 in issue 372 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin, Ofcom found that the programme failed to maintain due impartiality and had breached Rules 5.1, 5.11 and 5.12 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.

German public broadcaster WDR 2 issued an apology for showing a video of a children's choir singing a humorous, traditional tune rewritten with satirical lyrics.

The song, titled My grandma is an old environmental pig, triggered heated reactions on Twitter. One user described the lyrics as disrespectful, whilst a WDR news editor said the remake of the traditional tune was scandalously good.

The lyrics, including verses about grandma riding a motorcycle that burns a thousand liters of gasoline every month and eating a cutlet every day because meat from the discount supermarket is so cheap, include the refrain, My grandma is an old environmental pig. The video ends with a quote from teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg: We will not let you get away with this.

In response to complaints the broadcaster deleted the video saying:

We are concerned by the allegation that the children involved may have been 'instrumentalized'. This is absolutely not the case, but we decided to delete the video.

But of course that was not the end of the matter. The decision to take down the video was widely criticised. In an open letter about 40 TV authors have expressed their solidarity with the makers of the video, demanded it be immediately reposted and accused the WDR director of falling into the trap set by right-wing trolls and abandoning his staff.

In fact the WDR editor's office also supported the producers of the video and sharply criticized the censorship saying:

We are stunned that the program director of WDR 2 has a video with a satirical children's song deleted, and above all about the fact that director Tom Buhrow gives in so easily to a shitstorm apparently orchestrated by right-wing extremists, hastily distances himself editorially and not only apologizes in person, but also publicly (and repeatedly) in the process, instead of backing them up in the face of staged outrage against WDR and the other public broadcasters. According to the editors' representatives, the internal freedom of broadcasting had thus been violated.

Most national retailers in Thailand have just stopped handing out free plastic carrier bags to shoppers on January 1st

In the run up to the big day Thai TV added plastic bags to their list of social vices that must be optically censored, previously guns, alcoholic drinks, and cigarettes.

Perhaps the TV companies would have more of an effect blurring out cars, motorbikes, airplanes, air conditioners and meat.

Anyway the censorship has caused much derision on social media and the Thai environment minister stepped in to support the censorship.

National Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said it was easy for the online community to criticise this act of self-censorship by TV stations. He defended the broadcasters' "well intentioned" efforts by comparing it to the censorship of alcohol and cigarettes.

Alanis Morissette was invited to appear ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest. She was joined by the cast of her new Broadway musical J agged Little Pill .

But the producers had clearly done no research into what they may expect from the performance. When she took to the stage in Times Square on Tuesday night, those fans were no doubt thrilled to see a performance of  Morissette's 1995 single You Oughta Know.

Or at least they were until they realized that some of the song's edgier lyrics had been removed entirely, while seemingly random lyrics were bleeped, including the word perverted in the lyric Is she perverted like me?

A viewer pointed out that the excised lyrics actually appear intact when the song receives radio play throughout North America. Another tweeted:

Our president says horrible things every day that @ABC reports, but on @ABC you can't ask if she would go down on you in a theater.

ABC also censored the line: An older version of me for reasons not quite clear.