TVNZ show unfair to Sri Lankans, BSA says

11.35am

An item on TVNZ's current affairs show Sunday blackened the reputation of all Sri Lankans with unbalanced presentation of Sri Lankan attitudes to child sexual abuse, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has ruled.

The item, Return to Sender, dealt with Sri Lankan 16-year-old "T", deported despite claims she had been sexually abused by family members to whom she was returning.

The item screened on TV One on February 22, 2004.

Five complaints about the broadcast were referred to the authority, including one made on behalf of 389 members of the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand.

All of the complaints considered the item breached standards relating to balance, fairness and discrimination. Some also considered it was inaccurate and breached T's privacy.

A majority of the authority decided the item was unbalanced in relation to the attitudes of Sri Lankans to child abuse.

The item implied that Sri Lankan societal attitudes to child abuse and incest were abhorrent and significantly different from those held in New Zealand society.

In the item a spokesman for an organisation dea ling with young sexual abuse victims in Sri Lanka said some fathers felt it was their right to sexually abuse or rape their daughters.

"I have come across adult male fathers who have said: 'this is the tree that I have planted so I have the right to the first fruits'," he said.

The authority said some balance was required to these challenging views.

"Nowhere in the item was it acknowledged, even fleetingly, that the view presented was not universally accepted," the authority said.

It was this lack of balance that led to the authority ruling that the item denigrated Sri Lankans.

"The item implied that grossly dysfunctional attitudes to child sexual abuse ran right through Sri Lankan society," the authority said.

"The implication left by the programme blackens the reputation of all Sri Lankans and is accordingly denigratory ."

None of the other complaints was upheld.

- NZPA