Glamour Pam  (right) as she was shown on the BBC Africa documentary Fake Me: Living For Likes

Um

But the BBC Africa documentary, which looked at how people portray themselves differently on social media, was edited because of concerns about adverse reaction in some of the more conservative African countries where it was shown, prompting a debate at the BBC about whether the corporation should be censoring women’s bodies.

“The decision to deal with Pam’s cleavage was made at senior editorial level at BBC Africa,” said one internal email discussing the incident and justifying the decision.

BBC in row over blurring cleavage of interviewee in Kenya (The Guardian)

Biddy Bitcoin writes:

This is surreal. Shambolic censorship of a woman’s body. Why?

Sponsored Link

24 thoughts on “Busted

  1. scundered

    What if you actually did have a pixelated face in real life, can you imagine the hassle, people shouting oh look there’s yer man off crimewatch etc…

    1. rotide

      Might be worth bringing Gemma along to talk about the endemic corruption in Ireland as well. They could do with a laugh there.

    1. ReproBertie

      Isn’t the notion that the sight of female flesh would overcome all of a male’s self control the entire argument behind Muslims forcing their women to wear sacks?

    2. rotide

      I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this might not be the most damning indcitment of society in the continent of Africa daisy.

  2. millie st murderlark

    This is just bizarre. It’s television. Surely there’s more on to offend sensibilities than something as commonplace as a woman’s cleavage. And is the blurring out of it not drawing further attention to it?

    It just seems nonsensical.

    1. Cian

      This is a program that was broadcast in “conservative African countries”.. I’m not familiar with African TV – but I would guess that a woman’s cleavage isn’t commonplace in these particular countries – hence the blurring.

      1. Janet, I ate my avatar

        I suppose if you go back a few years even a kissing scene here would have produced quick channel changes or someone frantically offering to put the kettle on,

        1. millie st murderlark

          That’s a fair point. I suppose it can be difficult to understand the social and cultural differences when a lot of our consumption here in the west is so much of the same mindset.

          It’s jarring to us because those aren’t our sensibilities anymore.

        2. Pip

          Paralysed with embarrassment, while my mother would fuss with the tea making.
          Unable even to change the channel – would’ve made it even worse.
          Oliver Reed on the Late Late – I was so scared he’d take his trousers off.

  3. Janet, I ate my avatar

    You should try watch a movie you are familiar with on official Indian TV, any salty scene is just cut out.

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie