Investigation Report No. 3112

File No. / ACMA2013/1327
Broadcaster / Special Broadcasting Service
Station / 3EA (SBS Radio 1 – Melbourne)
Type of Service / National Broadcaster
Name of Program / Mandarin Language Program – ‘Meet You There’
Date of Broadcast / 24 May 2013
Relevant Code / SBS Codes of Practice 2006
Date finalised / 28 November 2013
Decision / No breach of clause 1.2 (diversity of views and perspectives)

Background

  • On 9 August 2013, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) received a complaint about an episode ofthe SBS Mandarin Language Program‘Meet You There’ broadcast by 3EA - SBS Radio 1Melbourne (SBS) on 24 May 2013.
  • The Mandarin Language Program is a two hour program which commences on SBS Radio 1 at 7am daily. SBS has advised that the ‘Meet You There’ segment is a weekly item featuring interviews that is generally placed in the last quarter of the program. On 24 May 2013, the segment commenced atabout 8.30am.
  • In its response to the complainant SBS described the segment as follows:

The ‘Meet You There’ segment is a weekly half hour program designed for a broad general audience of Mandarin speakers. It presents various life stories of Chinese people living both here and abroad, ranging from famous people to ordinary citizens. It covers the arc of human experience in an effort to explore a range of social, economic and cultural issues through the lens of human experience.

  • The 24 May 2013episode featuredthe stories of two female sex workers. The first was narrated by the presenter based on a web novel titled ‘Crossing the Ocean to be a Bargirl’. The second involved an interview with a Chinese sex worker and student living in Melbourne. During the interview, the young woman in question went into significant detail about a range of issues that she is confronted with, including her decision to work in the sex industry, how it affects her life and her perception of how others, such as her family and community, would view her actions.
  • The duration of the episode wasaround 30 minutes.Awritten translation, provided by SBS and certified by a NAATI[1] accredited translator, can be found at Attachment A.
  • The complainant submitted the following to SBS:

The impression I got after listening to this interview is that by selling sex, a young girl can earn quick money, buy luxury bags, branded clothes and send family significant amount of money with little effort.....

I am not saying that SBS can't interview sex workers. Of course you can. But shouldn't you mention the apparent risks of violence, disease and other downsides associated with sex industry as well? And what about the valuable personal dignity a young girl may lose by selling sex? By only telling the seemingly 'good' side of the story, the interview is at least misleading if not distorting the facts.

The complainant’s submissions can be found in full at Attachment B.

  • SBS replied as follows:

The program about a student prostitute inevitably referred to sexual activity, however it contained no description of any sexual encounters. A review of the translation of the program shows that the employment choice of the young student was presented as resulting from the economic pressures on the student. Her choice was shown to be problematic from a familial perspective, and not one respected within the Chinese community...

I appreciate your concerns about the program of 24 May, however the story of a Chinese student who supplements her student allowance through prostitution is a true story. It raises many issues, including how some students from China studying in Australia are lured into finding alternative ways to pay for the expense of gaining a university education here. The program also looks at the personal impact of that choice on the student.

SBS’s submissions can be found in full at Attachment C.

  • In her complaint to SBS, the complainant referred to clauses 1.2 and 2.2 of the SBSCodes of Practice 2006(the Codes).
  • The ACMA accepted SBS submissions that the segment of 24 May 2013 was not a current affairs program, but part of a regular weekly general programming segment which tells compelling stories about real life people through portrait-style interviews.
  • The complainant was advised that the ‘Meet You There’ segment is not news or current affairs, and as a result clause 2.2 (accuracy, impartiality and balance) does not apply. For this reason the investigation has considered SBS’s compliance with clause 1.2 of the Codes only:

1.2 DIVERSITY OF VIEWS AND PERSPECTIVES

SBS is for all Australians. Accordingly, SBS is committed to broadcasting programs that reflect a diversity of experiences, lifestyles, beliefs, cultures and languages within Australia.

SBS will seek to represent a range of significant perspectives on issues of public interest, subject to supply and quality of programs.

Some subject matter broadcast by SBS may be considered controversial. Section 70A of the SBS Act states “…SBS may determine to what extent and in what manner political matter or controversial matter will be broadcast by the SBS”.

SBS’s standards for the presentation of news and current affairs are set out in Codes 2 and 3 of these Codes of Practice.

SBS may broadcast other programs, such as documentaries, which are presented from particular points of view or explore a specific aspect of an issue. Such programs are not required to present every viewpoint or all available material relating to a particular issue or allocate equal time to different viewpoints.

Assessment

  • This investigation is based on submissions from the complainant, correspondence between the complainant and SBS and a translation of the broadcast provided to the ACMA by SBS. Other sources have been identified where relevant.
  • In assessing content for compliance with the Code, the ACMA considers the meaning conveyed by the relevant material. This is assessed according to the understanding of an ‘ordinary reasonable’listener.
  • Australian courts have considered an ‘ordinary, reasonable’listenerto be:

A person of fair average intelligence, who is neither perverse, nor morbid or suspicious of mind, nor avid for scandal. That person does not live in an ivory tower, but can and does read between the lines in the light of that person’s general knowledge and experience of worldly affairs.[2]

  • In considering compliance with the Codes, the ACMA considers the natural, ordinary meaning of the language, context, tenor, tone, and any inferences that may be drawn.
  • Once the ACMA has applied this test to ascertain the meaning of the material that was broadcast, it then determines whether that material has breached the Codes.

Issue: Diversity of views and perspectives

Finding

SBS did not breach clause 1.2of the SBS Codes of Practice 2006.

Reasons

  • Code 1 of the SBS Codes relates to general programming. The introduction at clause 1.1 relevantly states that:

SBS’s programming can be controversial and provocative and may at times be distasteful or offensive to some. Not all viewpoints presented will be shared by all audience members.

  • Relevant to this complaint, clause 1.2 provides that:

SBS is committed to broadcasting programs that reflect a diversity of experiences, lifestyles, beliefs, cultures and languages within Australia. SBS will seek to represent a range of significant perspectives on issues of public interest, subject to supply and quality of programs.

  • The ‘issue of public interest’ in this case is that of Chinese students working in the sex industry in Australia.
  • The complainant is concerned that:
  • the interview with a sex worker during the episodefocussed too heavily on the positiveaspects of working in that industry at the expense of other perspectives that explored its more sinister elements such as the risks of violence, disease and ‘other downsides’, and was thereforemisleading and distorted the facts
  • the story did not present values more acceptable to the Chinese community such as hard work and education
  • the male interviewer asked inappropriate questions that were in ill-taste
  • it did not take the public interest into consideration in that it was not appropriate for children and a young girl listening to the segment could have been adversely influenced by the segment
  • The ACMA acknowledges that the complainant found the content of the segment offensive and unbalanced. However, as noted above, SBS general programming may be offensive to some listeners. Further, clause 1.2 explicitly permits such programs to be presented from a particular point of view:

SBS may broadcast [programs other than news and current affairs], which are presented from particular points of view or explore a specific aspect of an issue. Such programs are not required to present every viewpoint or all available material relating to a particular issue or allocate equal time to different viewpoints.

  • The episode of ‘Meet You There’ on 24 May 2013 focussed on the issue of sex work from a ‘particular point of view’, i.e., the perspective of a Chinese student sex worker. SBS was not required to present every viewpoint on sex work during this episode.
  • The interviewee (XA)’s account of her exposure to the sex industry was a legitimate first-hand insight into what life as a sex worker entails.The fact that this had the effect of only her viewpoint on the issue being presented did not, in and of itself, entail a breach of clause 1.2.
  • There is no evidence that XA’s account was inaccurate or that her viewpoint was misrepresented, and clause 1.2 does not require that an opposing, or alternative viewpoint be presented in programs featuring a personal account or experience.
  • In any event the ACMA considers that the segment, and XA’s descriptions, did explore the dark side of sex work. For example:
  • When explaining why she hadn’t told those close to her about her work, XA said ‘I fear that I will be despised’ and ‘I feel I have touched the moral baseline’, demonstrating her own dislike of the profession.
  • When asked about bad clients, XAreplied that she hates people who ‘think that you should listen to me because I am paying you for it’, revealing that she is not treated well by all clients.
  • The presenter asked XA about how her family would react if they knew about her work, and XA stated that they may feel ‘disgusted’ and ‘heartbroken’.
  • When asked about whether she would tell a future boyfriend about having been a sex worker, XA says she would not, as she is not confident that he would accept her past.
  • There is not a requirement under clause 1.2 that particular values be presented, or that only the positive or widely believed and accepted values of a community or culturefeatured in a program be presented. As noted above, clause 1.2 explicitly permits the broadcast of subject matter that may be considered controversial, and the clause does not prevent the broadcast of material that may be confronting to some of its listeners.
  • However, the ACMA accepts the SBS submission that XA’s choice to become a sex worker was presented as problematic from a familial perspective and not one respected within the Chinese community.
  • The complainant has said she is concerned only with the material presented in the particular segment and that the life stories told in the segment in other programs does not justify the interview which failed to present a diversified view. However, there is no requirement at clause 1.2 for a range of, or opposing, perspectives to be presented within a program or over time.
  • Although there is no requirement for opposing perspectives, XA herself provides them. In her account XA recognizes that her family would be ‘disgusted’, ‘heartbroken and hurt’, that the majority of people ‘will not accept an industry like this’, that she fears she will be despised, that she feels that she has ‘lost her principles’ and that she has ‘touched her moral baseline’. It is also made clear that XA has joined the industry because ‘I really had no other options. I was really in need of money to pay my tuition fees. My family is not rich. In one word, I was defeated by money.’
  • The ACMA also accepts the SBS submission that since the segment was introduced, other stories have included examples of people who have built successful lives and are exemplary members of the Chinese community in Australia and overseas. In this way, although it has not presented a range of views on the sex industry in other segments, the program has broadcast a range of diverse views within the segment over time, which have demonstrated positive values within the Chinese community.
  • The ACMA notes that although the episode dealt with the topic of sex workers, the content of the segment was not sexually explicitand, as submitted by the SBS it contained no detailed description of sexual encounters.
  • The language used in the segment was not lewd, profane or abusive. In the context of a program about a student sex worker, the interviewer’s questions were not gratuitous or salacious. Further, they did not display an attitude of contempt or ridicule towards XA or sex workers. The ACMA considers that the interview was conducted with due sensitivity to the issues facing XA.
  • Clause 1.2 does not require SBS to take into account that children may be listening to the program and the ACMA accepts the SBS submission that the segment is not aimed at children and it seeks a broad audience.
  • In any event, SBS has submitted that the segment was introduced by an ‘audio grab’ indicating the topic so that listeners could make an informed choice about listening to it.
  • The ACMA considers that clause 1.2enables the broadcast of the perspective of a young student who is a sex worker and the circumstances surrounding her decision to join the industry.
  • Accordingly, SBS did not breach clause 1.2 of the Codes.

Attachment A

Translated transcript of the program

[Background music]

Female voice: What we are expecting is not a special experience, but a story told from the bottom of the heart.

Male voice: One story, one section of life. [QS] is waiting for you here at Meet you on Friday every week. Let’s be moved.

[Music fades]

Male Presenter (MP): Good morning, everyone. I am [QS], waiting for you here at Meet you on Friday every week. In today’s program we will hear from a special group of people, the sex workers. They are those who are wandering along streets after midnight, selling sex under neon lights and exchanging their bodies for money to live a different type of life. Among those female Chinese students who are studying in Australia, many are engaged in this trade. These girls’ families are supporting them with all their savings and having great expectations in them, but why are they going a long way to sell their bodies? Is it because of decadence, vanity, desperation or simply an unrestrained heart? Today we will walk into this grey area and listen to true stories of two student sex workers. The first story is adapted from the Web novel, Crossing the Ocean to be a Bargirl, written by Yingguo based on her personal experience. The name of the story is Cinderella.

[Music, women laughing in the background]

MP: In the room, some student like girls in bright coloured dresses are chatting and smoking, bursting out laughter. Their immature bodies are wrapped in sexy and revealing dresses, young faces covered in heavy makeup. Down the far end of the night club in this less than ten square metre room that belonged to them, these girls are shining in colours. They are talking in high spirits about money and men, sex and love. Looking at this scene, people must think they were free from troubles. Vulgar as they are, it is hard to cover up their vigour of youth, which is diffusing sweet smells like juices and oozing out of them. This kind of smell is what men are willing to pay for and what these girls are selling.

[Louder music; music fades; gloomy music]

MP: They are Chinese students studying in this foreign country, but choose to be sex workers in their free time. In daytime, they attend classes in yawns, do research in library and have group discussions with classmates. They are just like typical students, wearing ordinary clothes and without any makeup. But when night comes, they gather here and change into dresses and masks, waiting for group and group of empty, lonely or even perverted male guests. They call themselves Sailor Scouts because they have to transform every day. You will not feel they are different with any young and happy girls if they walk past you romping and laughing. But if you are good at observing, you may see something in their eyes and expressions that other teenage girls do not have, that is, a touch of tiredness, sadness and cunning with unintentional sexiness and charm.

[Louder music]

MP: At home, people are envious or even jealous of those who can go abroad to study and thinking of it as a glorious and proud achievement. But they will not see what these girls are going through every night. They are binge drinking in the arms of new guys and fending off those hands landed on their bodies. They stagger to the bathroom and stick filthy middle finger down their throats to throw out those icy cold alcohol they just drank, so that they will not get drunk too soon. They would rather stay in such an intoxicated state longer, thus they will not be too reluctant to go back to work.