Ruling on Celebrity Big Brother ‘retard’ joke backs charity

Published: 18 June 2010
by PETER GRUNER

AN Islington charity has celebrated a victory after TV watchdog Ofcom finally admitted that Celebrity Big Brother was in breach of guidelines by broadcasting the word “retard” on its programme.

The Islington Park Street-based Elfrida Society, which supports people with learning difficulties, originally re­ceived an apology from Channel 4 following the use of the “r” word in an exchange between contestant Vinnie Jones and presenter Davina McCall broadcast in January this year.

But Ofcom, which received eight complaints about the word, initially found the show not to be in breach of its guidelines as “there was not sufficient evidence to conclude that the word was necessarily intended to be offensive to anyone with learning difficulties”.

But when two complainants requested a review of the decision, the programme was found to be in breach.

Celebrity Big Brother contestant Vinnie Jones accused presenter Davina McCall of walking “like a retard”. Vinnie gave a quick demonstration of how a “retard” walks. Davina laughed and said indignantly: “I do not walk like a retard.”

Ofcom said that the comments made by Mr Jones and Ms McCall, while an obvious joke, “were clearly capable of causing offence”.

Louise Wallis, project manager for Elfrida, said the use of the word definitely upset a lot of people who are disabled or who work with disabled people.

“It means slow and backward,” she added. “It labels disabled people in a negative way. It is often used by people who wouldn’t dare use racist comments.”