The 18 rated 9 Songs includes several explicit hardcore scenes
showing real sex These include a woman performing fellatio and
masturbating an erect penis, ejaculation and close up of vagina being
penetrated by penis and finger.
9 Songs is being shown all day on Sky Box Office. And just to
add that the BBFC did in fact pass a DVD extra for 9 Songs at R18
featuring longer sex scenes out of context.
From blackjaques on
The Melon
Farmers' Forum
Well, I watched 9 Songs the night before last and was very
surprised just how explicit it was, particularly the fellatio scene.
Having watched so much " Y-Front Fellatio" and "pot-plant penetration"
on the Adult channels it came as quite a shock! Just reinforces Ofcon`s
absurdity. You can watch this film over your corn flakes at 7 o`clock in
the morning but if anything similar is shown on an adult subscription
channel late at night, some clown from Mediawatch gets to hear about it,
complains to Ofcon and the channel is fined £ 20,000. What a sexually
repressive, immature country we live in.
From IanG on
The Melon
Farmers' Forum
That`s the total hypocrisy and lunacy coming out of Ofcon for ya.
From `The Code`:
1.23 Pay per view services may broadcast up to BBFC 18-rated films or
their equivalent, at any time of day provided:
there is a protection system pre 2100 and post 0530 (a mandatory PIN or
other equivalent protection), that seeks satisfactorily to restrict
access solely to those authorised to view when material other than BBFC
U-rated or PG-rated or their equivalents is shown;
So, the supposedly ineffective PIN protection and NO watershed is going
to stop kids seeing fellatio, ejaculation, masturbation and vaginal
penetration simply because this is an 18 rated film? No! It`s going to
stop kids seeing this material because it is presented with some
`artistic merit`? No!
'The Code' continues:
1.24 Premium subscription services and pay per view/night services
may broadcast ‘adult–sex’ material between 2200 and 0530 provided that
in addition to other protections mentioned above:
there is a mandatory PIN protected encryption system, or other
equivalent protection, that seeks satisfactorily to restrict access
solely to those authorised to view; and
there are measures in place that ensure that the subscriber is an adult.
1.25 BBFC R18-rated films or their equivalent must not be broadcast.
If the sex scenes in 9 Songs are taken out of the context of that
film they would not pass at anything less than R18, therefore Sky Box
Office is showing "R18 or equivalent material", which of course is not
allowed at any time. As has been stated many times, children simply do
not have the ability to appreciate the context in which such scenes are
presented and justified outside R18, thus to any child (or adult for
that matter) this is R18 equivalent hardcore material.
If such hardcore scenes can `deprave and corrupt` our youth then this
film, along with several others, has everything Ofcon are so reluctant
to allow on PIN protected, post-watershed, late night, adult-only
channels. Obviously Ofcon were a) wrong in their decision or, b) just
wanted to maintain rights abuse of adult TV viewers (aka the status quo)
or, c) wanted to cripple adult TV services in the UK. Either way their
decision can now be seen as the total and utter foundless nonsense we
all know it to be. I might add that as far as I was aware the Ofcon Code
does not allow PPV services to broadcast 18 rated adult `sex works`
between 5:30am and 10pm so if Sky are broadcasting this film 24/7 they
most definitely are in serious breach of the Code and should be fined
very heavily because according to Ofcon PIN protection is insufficient
to safeguard kids from `R18 or equivalent` scenes.
However, this should convince UK adult services to force a Judicial
Review of the Ofcon Code because the law it is based upon says nothing
different from that applied to R18 videos and as such the decision by
the High Court in 2000 stands - there are NO GROUNDS to suppress
hardcore material, because the dangers to children do not warrant such
disproportionate rights abuse by a public body. The fact people in the
UK can and do receive hardcore TV from Europe is proof that the R18 ban
is not fulfilling Ofcon`s requirement to provide an environment for new
services to meet customer expectations and tastes. As no action has been
taken to suppress any of the Euro providers (save one failed attempt),
the dangers to children from this material obviously DO NOT EXIST. The
ban is therefore without any precedent in UK or European law and in fact
the ban was outlawed by the ECHR in 1990 when they stated that "a
licensing system cannot be used to suppress any legally available
material". No ifs, no buts, it is illegal to ban R18 from our screens,
full stop. All Ofcon can do is to stipulate that R18 can only be
broadcast at a time when it is `unlikely children will be viewing`.
Ofcon have ignored the requirement in UK law to consult the Case Law of
the ECHR, they have ignored the wording of the TVWF Directive and, they
have chosen to interpret the Comms Act 2003 in a way that is not
compatible with the HRA. They have not provided any evidence contrary to
that the BBFC presented when they lost the R18 appeal and thus they have
no right whatsoever to ignore the High Court ruling of 2000. Ofcon are
committing an act of unmitigated human rights abuse. There are no time
restrictions or PIN codes applied to viewing R18 videos in the home and
yet such `lax` security measures are not sufficent to warrant an
outright ban on the sale of R18 for home consumption. There can be no
justification for applying a ban on receiving the same material via TV,
which does offer time restrictions and PIN protection. In either case,
the law recognises the vigilance and the rights of the carer outweigh
the unfounded concerns of the censor or regulator.
