Olympic Logo, epileptic and doping

The BBC was in hot water again as the Coporation was yesterday censured for showing footage of the 2012 Olympic logo which could have triggered epileptic seizures.

While defending itself, BBC said that a major public body (hereof LOCOG) launching a promotion such as this to the public would already have taken steps to ensure compliance and that the graphics would have been tested for photosensitivity and be safe for it to broadcast. The BBC said it would not normally expect to test such images before broadcast."

But Ofcom ruled that "...it is the responsibility of the broadcaster to ensure that flashing images..... This responsibility is particularly important where there is the potential for harm to viewers. The broadcast of this material was therefore in breach of Rule 2.13."

The ruling of Ofcom reminds me of doping in sports. An athlete who failed doping test often claimed to be innocent, arguing that they did not take the forbidden substance intentionally, or somebody have spiked their food, and among others. But
whether intentional or innocent, the responsibility lies with the athletes themselves to ensure that no performance-enhancing drugs in their body.

The rules and regulations on doping serves as very good explanation of what is the responsibility. it is the same case on the issue of epileptic. BBC could shift the reponsibility to the Locog, which had the logo designed, but as a broadcaster, BBC has to ensure its content broadcast is free of those "banned substance" .

By the way, today's reading also led me to think of another question on the relationship between Ofcom and BBC. Recently BBC have been either fined or being censured by Ofcom, but BBC is actually a very special broadcaster as it has its own regulator in the form of BBC Trust. However, recent cases show that Ofcom has played a very active role in the regulation of BBC. I got full answers from the MOU between BBC Trust and Ofcom reached in March.