Complaints pour in after Henry calls Boyle 'retarded'

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has received nearly 200 calls after television host Paul Henry referred to intellectually-disabled Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle as "retarded".

On last Monday's TV1's Breakfast programme Monday's programme, Henry laughed while reading from a magazine article about how the singer was starved of oxygen at birth and suffered an intellectual disability.

"Here's the really interesting revelation: she is in fact retarded ...

"And if you look at her carefully, you can make it out," he said.

The HRC said today it had received 185 inquiries and complaints over the remarks.

A spokeswoman said she could not say how many were formal complaints.

"It's not the most (inquiries and complaints) we've had, but it's larger than normal."

The inquiries would be looked at by a mediator to assess whether the Human Rights Act was breached, she said.

Special Olympics New Zealand chairman David Rutherford said yesterday using "retard" to describe intellectually disabled people was as hurtful as racial slurs like "nigger" and "kike".

Mr Rutherford said Special Olympics New Zealand had requested a review of the application of broadcasting standards to ensure that the use of "retard" was regarded as unacceptable.

"Central to our thinking has been the consideration of people with intellectual disability. Most people with intellectual disability would find it very difficult to defend themselves in the medium of television."

Henry's comments have made it to Hollywood, with celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton directing his Twitter followers to an American news story on the Henry's comments.

Hilton, whose perezhilton.com website received millions of views per day, tweeted: "Susan Boyle in the middle of 'retarded' controversy", with a link to a story on Irish-American website Irish Central - sharing the story with more than 1.5 million Twitter followers.

Irish Central quoted Henry as saying his comments were made in a light-hearted fashion.

He said he had done nothing wrong and that it was okay to use the word retarded in relation to people with intellectual disabilities.

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said she was unable to comment on the complaints as they were "going through the usual process".

- NZPA