{"id":258890,"date":"2023-05-03T00:23:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T22:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/popular-tv-show-fined-for-domestic-violence-episode\/"},"modified":"2023-05-03T00:23:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T22:23:39","slug":"popular-tv-show-fined-for-domestic-violence-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/popular-tv-show-fined-for-domestic-violence-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular TV show fined for domestic violence episode"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/popular-tv-show-fined-for-domestic-violence-episode.png\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The BCCSA has ruled that the Mojo Love the channel knowingly broadcast an incident of GBV and neglected to \u201cproactively rectify the violent content\u201d.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The reality television show Isencane Lengane showed a scene in which a husband smashed his wife\u2019s phone and admitted to hitting her.<\/li>\n<li>Dozens of people lodged a complaint with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) against the episode, which was broadcast on DStv channel Moja Love.<\/li>\n<li>The BCCSA fined Moja Love R50,000 because it neglected to \u201cproactively rectify the violent content\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>But Moja Love disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The producers of a reality show about a couple who married in their mid-teens have been fined R50,000 over a scene in which the husband smashed his wife\u2019s phone and admitted to hitting her.<\/p>\n<p>More than 50 viewers complained to the broadcasting watchdog about an episode in the fifth season of Isencane Lengane broadcast by the DStv channel Moja Love on 22 January.<\/p>\n<p>During the episode Thando Dlamuka, 18, asks her husband Siyacela, 19, why he hit her the previous day. After an interview in which Siyacela admitted the assault and attempted to justify it, he was shown taking his wife\u2019s cellphone and smashing it on the floor.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/popular-tv-show-fined-for-domestic-violence-episode.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>Viewers told the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) that the show promoted gender-based violence (GBV), but Moja Love argued it had \u201cthe responsibility to broadcast the episode with a hope of creating awareness and dialogue on GBV\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Boitumelo Tlhakung, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bccsa.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/06-Sobudula-and-Several-Others-vs-Multichoice-Channel-157-Adjudication..pdf\">ruling on 6 April<\/a>, said it appeared from the complaints that there had been growing unhappiness about Siyacela\u2019s behaviour on Isencane Lengane.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe compelling difference this time around was the escalation from emotional abuse to actual physical violence, including the justification thereof, without any corrective from the broadcaster,\u201d she said in her finding.<\/p>\n<p>Tlhakung rejected Moja Love\u2019s argument that a reprimand would be the correct sanction and fined it R50,000, half the maximum fine the watchdog can impose.<\/p>\n<p>Isencane Lengane was launched in 2019 and followed the lives of Thando and Siyacela, high school sweethearts from Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal, as they married at the ages of 15 and 16.<\/p>\n<p>Season five began after the death of Siyacela\u2019s father, and viewers were introduced to the couple\u2019s newborn baby. But two weeks later the new father left for Durban to spend time with his lover, and Thando was unable to reach him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I can\u2019t reach Siyacela on the phone, I start thinking of wrong things but I don\u2019t care any more. I am just waiting for him to tell me what his future plans are for us,\u201d she said in an interview on the show.<\/p>\n<p>It was another phone call which sparked the 22 January confrontation. \u201cIn the impugned episode, the couple are having a conversation where they are reliving the previous day\u2019s events when [Siyacela] had assaulted his wife,\u201d said Tlhakung.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Thando] is evidently unhappy because she was assaulted and tries to understand the husband\u2019s reasons for the assault as she is still a bit confused. According to her, the fact that she received a phone call from her girlfriend, who had seemingly organised some men for her, angered her husband.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe continues to complain about her husband\u2019s reaction and further alleges that had it been a man who had called her, the assault would have probably been worse. The husband does not show any emotion while sitting next to her and listening to her telling the story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe later states his reasons why he assaulted her in a rather condescending tone. The interview switches back to the scene, where the husband takes his wife\u2019s cellphone and smashes it on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moja Love argued that although the complaints referred to a specific episode, \u201cthe storyline is continuous and therefore the channel did broadcast corrective measures in the following episode where the couple attend a counselling session with a social worker\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It said the production crew also stepped in and restrained Siyacela, and called the police. \u201cThando was advised to open a criminal case of assault against Siyacela, but she chose not to exercise this right and instead the channel moved Thando to a different location away from Siyacela.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A \u201cspecial broadcast\u201d was aired a week later, featuring \u201ca conversational dialogue between men [including Siyacela] regarding GBV, its causes and suggestions on how men can collaborate in an effort to end this epidemic\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the complainants said they were disappointed with Moja Love\u2019s handling of the incident. \u201cThe channel failed to take viewers into its confidence about what further steps were taken,\u201d said one. \u201cThis gives the impression that such content is an acceptable norm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another said: \u201cThis episode \u2026 contributes to normalisation of a significant issue the country is fighting against. The production team is further complicit as there is no attempt to add a message before or after the episode that communicated their contempt against GBV.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A third complaint said: \u201cThe channel should be made to account for such acts of violence that they allow \u2026 because what Siyacela is doing is a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tlhakung agreed, saying that Siyacela\u2019s comments in diary interviews that \u201chis wife knows that he does not want her to have any friends \u2026 give the impression that he thinks violence against women can be justified\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She added: \u201cThe fact that this impression is not immediately corrected or criticised by the broadcaster is problematic. Viewers are left with the impression that this is how people like themselves address problems in everyday life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that it is a reality programme and, most importantly, that the violence was not immediately denounced and identified as criminal conduct, constitute a contravention of all the provisions of Clause 10.2 and 10.3 of the broadcasting code of conduct.\u201d These clauses refer to content that incites imminent violence and advocates hatred based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion.<\/p>\n<p>Arguing for a reprimand rather than a fine, Moja Love said it laboured under the bona fide view that GBV had to be portrayed as it occurs in the real world \u2026 The channel was more of a messenger in this case than an instigator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Tlhakung said the channel knowingly broadcast an incident of GBV and neglected to \u201cproactively rectify the violent content\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Bokani Moyo, head of Moja TV channels, said an appeal was planned against the BCCSA finding. \u201cIsencane Lengane will continue as there are many storylines to be explored and our weekly ratings indicate that our audiences love the show,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2023 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/popular-tv-show-fined-for-domestic-violence-episode.png\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The BCCSA has ruled that the Mojo Love the channel knowingly broadcast an incident of GBV and neglected to \u201cproactively rectify the violent content\u201d. The reality television show Isencane Lengane showed a scene in which a husband smashed his wife\u2019s phone and admitted to hitting her. Dozens of people lodged a complaint with the Broadcasting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928,3247],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-258890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"category-news","9":"tag-groundup","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/popular-tv-show-fined-for-domestic-violence-episode.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}