Still on the hook: ACMA won’t drop quest for Kyle and Jackie O sex ban
Fashion betrays us all, eventually
Communications watchdog ACMA has confirmed that it will continue to seek a sexual content ban on any future radio programs featuring Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson, despite the demise of the Kyle and Jackie O show. The caveat is that the ban will be wiped out if the presenters switch networks.
Last November, ACMA issued notices of intention to impose an additional condition on ARN’s station licenses for Kiis in Sydney and Melbourne, that will ban the Kyle and Jackie O Show, and any other programs either appear on, from using sexual references.
The filing classified sexual references as “spoken words, innuendo and/or sound effects that would be understood by the ordinary reasonable listener as having a sexual meaning” which casts a wide net.
The licence condition will last for five years from its implementation, with the onus on ARN to “ensure that the program does not broadcast content which is highly offensive to an ordinary reasonable listener.”
In Senate estimates, in early February, ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the watchdog “expect[s] to settle the matter in the coming weeks”.
This week, however, saw the spectacular collapse of the Kyle and Jackie O show. ACMA told Mumbrella that it will still continue the process.
“These conditions have been drafted so that they would apply to the current program or any other show hosted by Mr Sandilands and/or Ms Henderson,” the watchdog said.
“The ACMA is currently considering representations made by the licensees on these conditions and will settle its approach in the near future.
“It is also monitoring the licensees’ recent announcements regarding the Kyle and Jackie O Show and any implications for its regulatory actions.”
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin (Mumbrella)
ARN’s Tuesday afternoon ASX filing that officially terminated the Kyle and Jackie O show said the network had “offered Ms Henderson the possibility of an alternative show on the ARN network”.
The current draft for the licence conditions, however, pertains only to the licensees of the Kyle and Jackie O Show, which are KIIS Melbourne and Sydney.
With the current wording, Henderson could host a show on ARN’s Gold network and the condition would not apply in its current form. ACMA will want to ensure the conditions are air-tight.
The watchdog previously enforced a license condition on the pair’s former station, 2DayFM after an infamous 2009 lie-detector stunt where a 14-year-old girl revealed on-air she’d been raped.
When the pair moved to KIIS in 2014, the ACMA “did not need to proceed any further with that because Mr Sandlands and Ms Henderson moved from that licensee to another license”, as O’Loughlin explained in Senate estimates last month.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young likened this approach to “predators in the church being moved around, not being held to account”.
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