Ofcom is to investigate EastEnders over a storyline in which Linda Carter the Queen Vic landlady was raped.
More than 90 people complained to the media watchdog and several hundred viewers also complained to the BBC over the episode screened on 6 October.
The BBC has defended it as part of the soaps “rich history” of portraying difficult storylines.
They said they had been careful not to avoid any graphic depictions.
The show’s makers also contented that the attack was “implied and was not explicit”.
Channel 5 has also been censured by Ofcom over swearing on three shows – Big Brother, It Takes a Thief To Catch a Thief and and the Hotel Inspector Revisited.
The broadcaster admitted that prior to a screening of You Need a Thief to Catch a Thief on 22 March at 1030, “due to human error the specific warning for offensive language was omitted from the announcement made when the programme went to air.”
The channel said that as a result of this error, it had reviewed its internal records to ensure that all pre-watershed versions of programmes are correctly labelled and reviewed by its compliance team.
All screenings were daytime repeats of evening shows and Ofcom ruled that the channel did not take appropriate steps to avoid frequent use of offensive language before the watershed.
Three people complained to Ofcom about a Big Brother episode screened at lunchtime on 7 August, which involved a conversation between five of the housemate – Chris, Ashleigh, Ash, Winston and Helen.
Ofcom noted 14 instances of different variations of the same swear word within a 50 second part of their …read more
Source:: BBC Entertainment
