KEY POINTS:
Alt TV has blamed a drunken employee for serious breaches of broadcasting standards that have seen the channel taken off air.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority banned Alt TV from broadcasting for five hours next Monday after it ruled that Groove in the Park, the channel's broadcast of a music event, breached standards of good taste and decency and children's interests, and encouraged denigration and discrimination on the basis of race.
In its response to the Authority, Alt TV explained that it had employed the services of a moderator/censor to look at the text messages before they were broadcast.
Unfortunately, it said, the person who had been employed had become intoxicated on the day and had failed to perform this role.
As punishment, Alt TV has been ordered off-air between 12 noon and 5pm on Labour Day and been told to instead display a statement which summarises the authority's decision and apologises to viewers.
The channel has also been ordered to pay costs of $5000.
The authority said it considered the breaches to be "extremely serious".
Groove in the Park was a G-rated programme broadcast live on Waitangi Day.
A viewer complained that during the broadcast text messages of a racist and sexual nature, including explicit language, were run across the screen.
The statements supporting death of and violence towards people of particular races could, the authority said, aptly be described as hate speech.
It concluded that the broadcast encouraged denigration of, and discrimination against, sections of the New Zealand community on the basis of race.
The authority said it had never before ordered a station to stop broadcasting.
- NZPA
