UK TV and Radio News

The Thin Blue Line is a 1995 UK crime comedy by Ben Elton
Starring Rowan Atkinson, Mina Anwar and James Dreyfus

Various mishaps at a police station in an English town. The main character is the anachronistic, yet charming and funny Inspector Fowler.

There are no film censor issues with this film but showings on BBC's iPlayer were cut when it was made available for streaming in 2021

The episode Ism Ism Ism has two scenes missing possibly due to political correctness.

• The first scene cut is where Melvyn Hayes' character (appearing very effeminate) meets Inspector Grim and Grim mentions he's married with kids just show he's not homosexual.
• The second cut occurs right at the end, again with Melvyn Hayes' character being removed.

Other episodes  in the series feature racist language (within context) which is not cut. Also the BBC doesn't seem to have an issue with the camp Constable Goody character. So perhaps it is the notion that it is somehow preferable to be seen as straight that has had to be censored by the BBC.

Good Morning Britain
ITV, 8 March 2021, 06:00

Good Morning Britain (GMB) is a weekday morning news and discussion programme broadcast on ITV.

Most of the broadcast on 8 March 2021 was dedicated to discussing an interview between Oprah Winfrey and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex which had been broadcast overnight in the USA. The Interview was due to air in the UK that evening and clips of it had been made publicly available ahead of the full broadcast.

Ofcom received more than 50,000 complaints about the Programme; the majority of which said that comments about mental health and suicide made by one of the lead presenters, Piers Morgan, were both harmful to the audience and highly offensive and that discussions on issues relating to race and racism in the Programme were highly offensive to some viewers.

Ofcom Decision

Overall, Ofcom considered that there is a high public interest value in broadcasting open and frank discussions about race and racism, as long as they comply with the Code. As set out above, we also considered that the Interview between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Oprah Winfrey contained serious allegations and it was legitimate for this Programme to discuss and scrutinise those claims. While we acknowledged that Mr Morgan's questions about the nature of racism had the potential to be highly offensive to some viewers, the conversations about race and racism in this Programme provided open debate on the issues raised by the Interview. We also considered that the Programme allowed for an important discussion to be had on the nature and impact of racism. ITV had clearly anticipated that racial issues would be discussed at length as part of the coverage of the Interview and had taken steps to ensure context could be provided during the discussions. Despite strong opinions expressed during the Programme, in Ofcom's view any potential offence was justified by the context and the comments and discussions about race and racism were not in breach of of the Code.

Not in Breach of Rules 2.1 and 2.3 in relation to the discussion on mental health and suicide.
Not in Breach of Rule 2.3 in relation to the debate about race and racism.

John Cleese will take on the topic of cancel culture in a forthcoming television series for the UK's Channel 4.

The new documentary will reportedly explore why a new 'woke' generation is trying to rewrite the rules on what can and [mostly] can't be said.

John Cleese: Cancel Me will see Cleese meet various subjects who claim to have been cancelled for their actions or statements, and activists who have led opposition to various public figures. In a statement, Cleese said:

I'm delighted to have a chance to find out, on camera, about all the aspects of so-called political correctness. There's so much I really don't understand, like: how the impeccable idea of 'Let's all be kind to people' has been developed in some cases ad absurdum.

Lords of Chaos is a UK / Sweden thriller by Jonas Åkerlund.
Starring Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen and Sky Ferreira.      

Oslo, 1987. 17-year-old Euronymous is determined to escape his traditional upbringing and becomes fixated on creating 'true Norwegian black metal' with his band Mayhem. He mounts shocking publicity stunts to put the band's name on the map, but the lines between show and reality start to blur. Arson, violence and a vicious murder shock the nation that is under siege by these Lords of Chaos.

The film was uncut and 18 rated for UK cinema release and home video.

Film4 had the TV premiere of Lords of Chaos on Saturday night. Despite being shown after 11pm they made cuts to the suicide scene. Predictably they cut the method of slitting up the arms instead of across the wrists.

Ofcom has censured the English and Indian language channel, Republic Bharat for breaching UK censorship rules by bad mouthing Pakistan.

TV censor Ofcom said it had received a complaint about a programme contained demeaning statements which amounted to abusive and derogatory treatment of Pakistani people.

The Debate with Arnab is a regular English-language current affairs debate and discussion programme presented by the journalist Arnab Goswami. The debate featured in this episode took place in the context of Pakistan's announcement that it was planning to hold parliamentary elections in GilgitBaltistan.

Ofcom noted:

This programme contained material which was abusive and derogatory towards Pakistani people, in particular, by ascribing negative characteristics to Pakistani people as a whole on the basis of their nationality. Ofcom therefore considered this programme clearly had the potential to cause significant offence.

Ofcom expressed concern that after the publication of the above decisions, the Licensee went on to broadcast two further programmes which we have found to be in breach of Rule 3.3 of the Code.

Republic Bharat ceased broadcasting in the UK in May.

The UK TV censor Ofcom has revealed an increase in the number of complaints that it receives about UK TV programmes. It received 142,660 complaints between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, a 410% rise on the previous 12 months' total of 34,545.

Piers Morgan's comments on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Oprah Winfrey TV interview on Good Morning Britain in March drew a record 54,453 complaints. Morgan accounts for three more of the 10 most-complained about TV broadcasts.

Ofcom's 10 most-complained about single transmission programmes were:

• Good Morning Britain : 8 March 2021 -Comments by Piers Morgan about the Duchess of Sussex's reference to feeling suicidal - 54,453.
• Britain's Got Talent : 5 September 2020 - Objections to performance by Diversity on 5 September referencing political campaigns by Black Lives Matter (BLM) - 25,017.
• I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! - Welfare of animals used in trials on the show - 11,516.
• Britain's Got Talent : 19 September 2020 - Alesha Dixon wearing a necklace with the initials "BLM" being offensive and not suitable for a non-political show - 2,565.
• Britain's Got Talent : 10 September 2020 - Objections to Nabil Abdulrashid's performance on the grounds of finding it offensive - 2,253.
• Good Morning Britain - 15 April 2020 - Objections to Piers Morgan's manner of interviewing Helen Whateley MP - 2,017.
• Good Morning Britain - 22 April 2020 - Objections to Piers Morgan's manner of interviewing Helen Whateley MP - 1,334.
• Britain's Got Talent - 3 October 2020 - Objections to Nabil Abdulrashid's performance on the grounds of finding it offensive, and Amanda Holden's dress was too revealing, unsuitable for a family audience - 1,189.
• Good Morning Britain - 28 April 2020 - Perceived bias / bullying from Piers Morgan when interviewing Victoria Atkin, MP - 1,178.
• Good Morning Britain - 26 November 2020 - Disputed Rishi Sunak's claims that he had met with excluded UK leaders - 1,068.

Ofcom noted however:

In many of the cases above, we did not find the issues warranted an investigation.