Investigation Report No. 3243File No. ACMA2014/641

Broadcaster Triple M Sydney Pty Ltd

Station 2MMM

Type of Service Commercial Radio

Name of Program The One %ers with Matt Tilley & Joe Hildebrand

Date of Broadcast 18 June 2014

Relevant Code Clause 1.1(e) of the Commercial Radio Australia Codes of Practice 2013

Date finalised 16 September 2014

Decision No breach of clause 1.1(e) [incitement of hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule because of ethnicity, nationality or race]

ACMA Investigation Report 3423—The One %ers with Matt Tilley & Joe Hildebrand—2MMM – 18 June 2014

Background In July 2014, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA)

commenced an investigation into a segment of the program The One %ers with Matt Tilley & Joe Hildebrand broadcast on 18 June 2014 by Triple M Sydney Pty Ltd, the licensee of 2MMM (the licensee).

The One %ers with Matt Tilley & Joe Hildebrand is a light entertainment drive program broadcast on weekdays between 4:00pm and 6:00pm, with a mixture of music, comedy and talkback.

During the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament held between 12 June and 13 July 2014, the program included coverage (mostly satirical and light-hearted) of highlights and matches.

In a segment on 18 June 2014, after discussing the movement of ‘Doug the Slug’, a slug placed on a board used to predict the winning or losing teams, and the upcoming match between Australia and the Netherlands, the presenters commented on the performance of Colombia during the tournament. They mentioned the country’s ‘ragged history’ before referring to René Higuita, a former Colombian goalkeeper famous for performing ‘scorpion kick’ saves, stating: ‘Chimpanzees could do that. I’m gonna do a donkey kick!’

Later, one of the presenters said: ‘It seems to me that if you mention Colombia, the next thing that people generally mention is cocaine’ and then invited any Colombians to phone in.

Two listeners phoned in identifying themselves as Colombian and refuted the stereotype put forward by the presenters.

The segment ran for approximately 13 minutes. A transcript is at Attachment A.

The complainant submitted that the segment was ‘incredibly discriminatory towards Colombia and Colombian people, insinuating that the civil war in Colombia is a laughing matter and that Colombian people are comparable to “chimpanzees”’. The complainant also said that it was ‘very inappropriate to suggest that all Colombians use drugs or to suggest that backpackers go to Colombia to use drugs as a major attraction’.

The complainant’s submissions are at Attachment B, and the licensee’s response is at Attachment C.

Assessment In assessing content for compliance with the Code, the ACMA considers the meaning

conveyed by the relevant material that was broadcast. This is assessed according to the understanding of an ‘ordinary reasonable’ listener.

Australian courts have considered an ‘ordinary, reasonable’ listener to 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.1

In considering compliance with the Code, the ACMA considers the natural, ordinary meaning of the language, context, tenor, tone and inferences that may be drawn. In

1 Amalgamated Television Services Pty Ltd v Marsden (1998) NSWLR 158 at 164-167.

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the case of factual material which is presented, the ACMA will also consider relevant omissions (if any).

Once the ACMA has applied this test to ascertain the meaning of the material that was broadcast, it then assesses compliance with the Codes.

Issue: Proscribed matterFindingThe licensee did not breach clause 1.1(e) of the Codes.

Reasons Clauses 1.1(e) and 1.2(a) of the Commercial Radio Australia Codes of Practice 2013

(the Code) provides:

Proscribed matter

1.1 A licensee must not broadcast a program which in all of the circumstances:

(e) is likely to incite hatred against, or serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, any person or group of persons because of age, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexual preferences, religion, transgender status or disability.

1.2 Nothing in sub-clause 1.1 prevents a licensee from broadcasting a program of the kind or kinds referred to in those sub-clauses if the program:

(a) is presented reasonably and in good faith for academic, artistic (including comedy or satire), religious instruction, scientific or research purposes or for any other purposes in the public interest, including discussion or debate about any act or matter.

Relevant group of persons and the relevant attribute The ACMA is satisfied that the relevant group of persons for the purposes of clause

1.1(e) is people of Colombian nationality.

Incitement

The ACMA must consider whether the ordinary reasonable viewer would have understood that they were being urged, stimulated or encouraged by the content to share or maintain feelings of hatred, contempt or ridicule against people of Colombian nationality.

Conduct that merely conveys a person’s hatred, intense dislike, serious contempt or severe ridicule will not be enough to necessarily incite or provoke those same feelings in the audience.

There must be something more than an expression of opinion, something that is positively stimulatory of that reaction in others.2

Hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule

The clause establishes a high threshold test for the proscribed material. The words ‘intense’, ‘serious’ and ‘severe’ contemplate a very strong reaction to the broadcast material. A breach is not found if the broadcast material induces a mild or even strong response or reaction.

In relation to the presenter’s comment regarding chimpanzees, the ACMA accepts that the comments did not compare people of Colombian nationality with

2 Trad v Jones & anor (No 3) [2009] NSWADT 318 at [61].

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chimpanzees. It considers that these comments would have been understood by the ordinary, reasonable listener as praising the goalie, Mr Higuita’s athleticism and ability to execute saves from a handstand position. This was reinforced by the closing comments by one presenter on the subject: ‘Brilliant, brilliant’.

In respect of the remarks concerning cocaine production and drug-related violence in Colombia, the ACMA notes the licensee’s submission that the presenters explored the stereotype that Colombia is synonymous with cocaine production and use.

The stereotype is based on Colombia’s high level of cocaine production,3 and its history of conflict and violence involving drug cartels.4

Although the stereotype is based on factual elements, the ACMA is satisfied that the segment mildly ridiculed the Colombian people, and that by inviting Colombian callers to comment on whether they had used cocaine, to some extent it encouraged the audience to share these feelings of ridicule.

Each caller ‘de-bunked the myth’, the first advising that he had not used cocaine in Colombia and that ‘a lot of people forget all the great things we have in Colombia’ and the second explaining that farmers grow cocaine in order to export it and to support their families, but that use of the drug in Colombia is frowned upon.

The segment did not explicitly refer to the drug wars although they were alluded to (‘I wonder if that is true, or whether if offends the Colombian people who go ‘You know what? We’re a bit more than that! We have gangs and we kill people to, you know!’).

The ACMA considers that the purpose was comedic rather than a serious exploration of a stereotype. The segment intermittently returned to other topics, including the movement of ‘Doug the Slug’, and the match between Australia and the Netherlands. This further added to the sense of light-heartedness and playfulness.

As noted above, clause 1.1(e) of the Code, sets a high threshold test for the likely ef-fect of the proscribed material.

Although it generally mocked people from Colombia, the segment was light-hearted and comical in nature and the comments lacked the necessary strength to be likely to incite feelings of severe ridicule towards Colombian people. There was no inflammat-ory language, explicit terms of condemnation nor build-up of terms having the cumu-lative effect of incitement of hatred, contempt or ridicule.

In this case, the ACMA considers that, while the presenters explored a stereotype with the listeners, and were at times disrespectful of the Colombian people, any ri-dicule that was encouraged was not sufficient to reach the high threshold that is con-templated by the Codes.

The licensee has therefore not breached clause 1.1(e) of the Codes, and it is not necessary to consider the exemption set out at clause 1.2(a) of the Codes.

3 http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Colombia/Colombia_Coca_Cultivation_Survey_2012_web.pdf; - accessed 16 September 2014

4 http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/colombia/130620/colombian-coca-production-cocaine-drug-war - - accessed 16 September 2014

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Attachment A

Transcript of the segmentMatt Tilley: Matt Tilley and Joe Hildebrand for Australian Sports Nutrition. The reason we’re so euphoric, the reason we’re banging on about this so much is because every single time we lay it on the line it could be the last time.

Joe Hildebrand: Yes, that’s right.

Matt Tilley: We’re talking about this fellow of course─

[Audio – Les Murray’s voice]: Hi, this is Les Murray on the streets of Rio and everyone is talking about─

[Audio – Commentator]: And he’s got it this time! Yes!

[Audio – Les Murray’s voice]: Doug the slug.

[Audio – Commentator]: What a beauty!

Matt Tilley: Yes, he is a beauty. And how this gastropod has survived in our steamy hot office on housewife’s lettuce alone, the old iceberg─

Joe Hildebrand: It is, it is a miracle. I mean, the thing is you can’t─ losers don’t live. Right, it’s a dog eat dog world, its kill or be killed, and Doug the slug has come out of the blocks and twice picked the loser of Australia, and, well─

Matt Tilley: Any games!

Joe Hildebrand: Not just Australia. It’s Australia and, ah─

Matt Tilley: Puerto Rico and Germany

Joe Hildebrand: Puerto Rico and─

Matt Tilley: Portugal, not Puerto Rico

Joe Hildebrand: Portugal and Germany, picked the wrong one, and Australia─

Matt Tilley: He’s a curse, that’s what he is!

Joe Hildebrand: Exactly, and now we’ve realised that Doug is in fact just quite a negative character. He’s a glass half empty kind of slug.

Matt Tilley: Well─

Joe Hildebrand: And he’s been deliberately going after the loser, so─

Matt Tilley: Well he’s kind of been saying: ‘You know I am a slug? That is a negative thing. You guys kind of missed the point.’ Let’s lay him down, Joe. It’s the fast track towards─ Well, I guess─

Joe Hildebrand: So he has to pick the loser now, right?

Matt Tilley: ─infamy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we’ve got the─

Joe Hildebrand: Oh, look at him.

Matt Tilley: ─two pieces of lettuce.

Joe Hildebrand: Gee whiz, he’s just been─

Matt Tilley: It’s like he’s getting stronger.

Joe Hildebrand: He’s there. He’s in the, he’s in the blocks.

Matt Tilley: We have a cup, ah, and it is a cup of lettuce isn’t it? One leaf, like if you have the old San Choi Bao? It’s sort of, it’s sort of two cups of lettuce, one with the Aussie flag…

Joe Hildebrand: Same to you, mate.

Matt Tilley: ─one with the Dutch flag, of course.

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Joe Hildebrand: Yes!

Matt Tilley: And, ah, the unique thing about the Aussie flag, and the Dutch flags – both of those flags do not carry the team colours.

Joe Hildebrand: No, that’s right.

Matt Tilley: Because Australia of course is yellow and green but there’s none of that on the flag, and the Dutch of course is red, white─

Joe Hildebrand: Orange.

Matt Tilley: ─and blue, and they’re orange. It’s very unusual.

Joe Hildebrand: What sort of stupid country─

Matt Tilley: As Doug goes into a ball! What’s this? He’s having some kind of panic attack!

Joe Hildebrand: He’s just─ is he playing dead? Is this a ruse?

Matt Tilley: Oh, no!

Joe Hildebrand: He’s just curled up, and─

Matt Tilley: Well look, let’s, ah─

Joe Hildebrand: This can’t be good. Should we send in a medic?

Matt Tilley: Just poke him with the knife, Joe. I can’t reach.

Joe Hildebrand: Where’s that bloke from England with the broken leg?

Matt Tilley: Here he goes, he’s stretching out again

Joe Hildebrand: Okay.

Matt Tilley: That’s alright.

Joe Hildebrand: Yeah, he’s going for it.

Matt Tilley: He just─ he went a bit, um, flaccid there. I think that’s the correct word to describe a─

Joe Hildebrand: I think, I think─

Matt Tilley: ─a slug in that state.

Joe Hildebrand: I think he was just faking, he was just faking. It was a dummy pass.

Matt Tilley: Let’s move on, as he slowly stretches out and makes his way towards the end of the track that is this beautiful white platter from Minimax. Ah─ we do want to talk World Cup, because there’s been some games, not the least of which has seen Colombia─

Joe Hildebrand: Oh, oh man, yeah─

Matt Tilley: ─enter the fray. And I think what we’ve gotta remember is─

Joe Hildebrand: Wonderful country.

Matt Tilley: ─they have a sort of ragged history. Like, remember the guy who kicked an own goal for Colombia, he was killed.

Joe Hildebrand: Ah yeah, that’s right, exactly, didn’t─

Matt Tilley: And then they had René Higuita the goalkeeper, who famously could do a handstand and flip his legs up and save it that way! Going: ‘Hands? Too easy!’

Joe Hildebrand: Who needs those?

Matt Tilley: ‘Chimpanzees could do that. I’m gonna do a donkey kick!’ Whip-boom – And he would run out over the halfway line during the match! Let’s just play 11 forward!

Joe Hildebrand: Brilliant, brilliant.

Matt Tilley: Forget 4-4-3─

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Joe Hildebrand: Who needs a goalie anyway?

Matt Tilley: ─or 4-4-1 or 4-4-2 or whatever adds up to 11, let’s just have ten at the front!

Joe Hildebrand: Exactly, just run up to the other team’s goal and just throw it in!

Matt Tilley: Yes. Ah, if you are─

Joe Hildebrand: Like basketball!

Matt Tilley: ─if you are Colombian you could really help us out right now. [Phone number] if you are Colombian. You don’t have to have grown up there, but your parents probably would help. You need to have been back to the mother country, I think.

Joe Hildebrand: Yeah.

Matt Tilley: Colombians! Colombians only! This is your moment to shine! [Phone number], please ring and help us out with something.

[One Percenters I.D and Song] Matt Tilley: It’s The One %ers with Matt Tilley and Joe Hildebrand and for Australian Sports Nutrition’s national clearance sale. It’s on this Saturday, it’s not that far away, and yet there is so much water to come under the bridge, Joe. Imagine tonight─

Joe Hildebrand: So much sport!

Matt Tilley: Australia against the Netherlands at 2 o’clock in the morning, lots of people talking going all the way through.

Joe Hildebrand: That’s right. By the time that sports hour comes along, the entire sporting landscape of the world, not just Australia, but the world could have been changed! Not least, of course, by the World Cup.

Matt Tilley: That’s right. One of the big issues confronting a lot of people is how they’re going to stay awake, and do other countries have an advantage when it comes to… Oh, Doug has made a late break – sorry to interrupt the show – Doug has made a late break toward the Socceroos─

Joe Hildebrand: Oh, he’s breaking for the Socceroos.

Matt Tilley: Toward the Socceroos again.

Joe Hildebrand: That means they’re gonna lose though!

Matt Tilley: I know, turn back!

Joe Hildebrand: The Dutch, Doug! Dutchy Doug the Slug.

Matt Tilley: Anyway, if you’re listening now wondering: ‘How am I gonna play? I might watch Origin, then I might grab two hours, nah I’m gonna have a few beers, I’ll just keep going through.’ I know some blokes going for a ride between the end of Origin and the start of the Socceroos to stay awake.

Joe Hildebrand: What, to just, driving along down the motorway sticking their head out the window, just to [slap, slap].

Matt Tilley: No, no, not a ride on a motorbike, on pushbikes. Some, like, invigorating exercise! Just for something to do, they go: ‘we’ll have the roads to ourselves!’

Joe Hildebrand: Really, that’s strange, yeah.

Matt Tilley: I’m just saying, mate, Aussies─ they adapt in different ways, they improvise, they overcome─ interestingly enough, err, there was a headline that caught my eye to-die, in terms, err, to-die─

Joe Hildebrand: To-die!

Matt Tilley: Went all Julia Gillard on you there!

Joe Hildebrand: Fresh from the─ fresh from the set of Kath and Kim!

Matt Tilley: Um, Doug’s headed to the Netherlands. Don’t do it.

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Joe Hildebrand: Yeah that’s what we want. We want him to pick them, and them to lose.

Matt Tilley: The Colombian team has been described as Colombia’s ‘Coffee growers have found an invigorating mix without their hero!’ They were missing one of their better players. And I─ But─ but I─

Joe Hildebrand: Well─

Matt Tilley: Hang on─

Joe Hildebrand: Yeah.

Matt Tilley: Is Colombia really famous for its coffee? Coffee comes from Brazil, it comes from Indonesia, it comes from Colombia, but I think we associate something else with Colombia don’t we?

Joe Hildebrand: Are you suggesting that─

Matt Tilley: [Sniff, sniff, sniff].

Joe Hildebrand: ─there’s another stimulant beginning with ‘C’ that Colombia is more famous for than caffeine?

Matt Tilley: I think I am, I think I am.

Joe Hildebrand: Yeah, okay. Well─

Matt Tilley: And if Sofía Vergara had not been on Modern Family─

Joe Hildebrand: I don’t know where you’re getting your crazy information from.

Matt Tilley: I just want to say this. It seems to me that if you mention Colombia, the next thing that people generally mention is [spoken with an accent] cocaine [end accent].

Joe Hildebrand: Oh! The [spoken with an accent] Coca-Cola! [end accent] The white lady!

[Background laugh]

Joe Hildebrand Snow!

Matt Tilley: And it’s kind of like, it is their whizz-fizz!

Joe Hildebrand: Yeah, white line fever.

Matt Tilley: That, you know, everybody has it, is on it, sells it─

Joe Hildebrand: Bit of rack.

Matt Tilley: I hear of people who go backpacking, and go: ‘it’s crazy!’

Joe Hildebrand: Bit of blow.

Matt Tilley: Just everybody has some─ you done?

Joe Hildebrand: Sorry.

[Background laugh]

Matt Tilley: Um, and I thought, I wonder if that is true, or whether it offends Colombian people who go ‘You know what? We’re a bit more than that! We have gangs and we kill people too, you know!’

Joe Hildebrand: Ah─ Yeah that’s right, what about organised crime?

Matt Tilley: They’re tired of being all about the drugs!

Joe Hildebrand: Well they go together, don’t they?

Matt Tilley: And coffee!

Joe Hildebrand: Well sometimes after a big night on the blow, you need a cup of coffee just to, you know, straighten yourself out.

Matt Tilley: Doug is just centimetres from the Netherlands lettuce. I’m sorry to keep going back to it, but this is an extraordinary moment because if he does pick the Netherlands─

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Joe Hildebrand: He’s chomping! That means we’ve won! We’re gonna win our first game! Come on! Is he chomping? Can we actually see jaw movements?

Matt Tilley: He is! I’m sorry to break into the Colombia diatribe that we’re going with, but that─

Joe Hildebrand: We’re getting some photographic proof.

Matt Tilley: So here’s the thing.

Joe Hildebrand: We’ll have this up on our Twitter feed─ uh oh─ that photo was taken with a flash and it may just have fried Doug. Does anyone have some garlic? Stat.

Matt Tilley: Hold on, think about─ this is pretty big because either Australia wins, or Doug’s salted. He’s gonna have a good day tomorrow, no matter what!

Joe Hildebrand: He’s got─ He’s got a lot riding on this. Say what you like about Doug, he’s a hell of a gambler.

Matt Tilley: Has anyone ever had a slug-in-bread before? Because that’s what’s going down here tomorrow at the studios, but─ I wanna get back to what we were talking about with Colombia.

Joe Hildebrand: Okay, yes, a country known for an illicit substance whose use we in no way condone─ is that what you’re saying, that it’s─ that it must be tough─

Matt Tilley: Almost like the Dutch and hash-cookies. Asking people on the phone now, Colombians, people who were born there─ is it part of your life? Have you done it? So we’re going to keep them anonymous.

Joe Hildebrand: Okay.

Matt Tilley: Caller one─

Caller one: [Laughs]

Joe Hildebrand: Hello [states caller’s name]!

Matt Tilley: No!

Joe Hildebrand: Oh, no.

Caller one: [Laughs]

Matt Tilley: You’re an idiot!

Joe Hildebrand: He’s a [name of religion]!

Caller one: I thought it was anonymous! [Laughs]

Matt Tilley: Alright, he is a [name of religion]─

[Background laugh]

Joe Hildebrand: It’s a Catholic country!

Matt Tilley: Caller one! I’m going back to caller one! Let’s just─ we dump?

Joe Hildebrand: No, it’s too late.

Matt Tilley: Caller one, you were born in Colombia. Whereabouts?

Caller one: In Cali.

Joe Hildebrand: In Cali?

Matt Tilley: Okay, sounds Colombian. Ah, have you ever tried the old marching powder?

Caller one: Uh, yes I have. Uh, however not in Colombia.

Matt Tilley: Ah, that’s weird!

Joe Hildebrand: That’s a turn up for the books!

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Caller one: Yeah, well, put it this way. Colombia was really famous about that particular reason back in the 80’s and unfortunately because of the news only showed the bad things that happened all over the world, a lot of people forget all the great things we have in Colombia!

Matt Tilley: Yeah, look. Ah, caller [caller’s name]─

Joe Hildebrand: Ah, yes.

Matt Tilley: Caller─ I’m confused now.

Joe Hildebrand: He’s anonymous thankyou, Mathew.

Matt Tilley: It’s a bit weird. It’s a bit like going to Germany for your first croissant, isn’t it?

Joe Hildebrand: Yeah.

Matt Tilley: Anyway, the answer is you’re from Colombia and yes, you have tried it.

Joe Hildebrand: But not in Colombia!

Matt Tilley: But that’s kind of secondary.

Joe Hildebrand: So its false─ well no I think─

Matt Tilley: But it’s saying that Colombians love it. And we don’t condone it.

Joe Hildebrand: No, it’s saying that it’s got a false reputation, that they’re a very clean living Christian people─

Matt Tilley: In an obtuse way, which seems to be your modus operandi so far [laughs]. Let’s go to another caller.

Joe Hildebrand: Okay.

Matt Tilley: Caller two.

Joe Hildebrand: Anonymous.

Matt Tilley: Alright, thought you were going to call him [caller 1’s name].

Joe Hildebrand: Hello, caller anonymous?

Matt Tilley: Where were you born in Colombia?

Caller two: Sorry?

Matt Tilley: Where were you born in Colombia?

Caller two: In Bogota.

Joe Hildebrand: Ah, the capital.

Matt Tilley: Right. And have you tried the old Hohania?

Joe Hildebrand: The old Charlie, the old white lady, the old blow…

Caller two: We um, no, no I haven’t. Reason being is, we frown upon it, mate. Honestly, like─ South America. And living there, right, because I do travel quite a bit, living there, anyone that does it usually does it because, you know, well that farmers that grow it, they grow it to support their families. And they export it to America, to the rest of the world, so people don’t actually do it. They frown upon it.

Joe Hildebrand: Right, so it’s all the gringos, all the touristas─

Caller two: It’s all the gringos, and we thank them. And we thank them for, you know, supplying us with money so we can feed our families.

Matt Tilley: Yeah, okay. That’s why [caller 1] had to go O.S. to get some!

Caller two: That’s right! No, honestly, we’re known for football, we’re known for beautiful women.

Joe Hildebrand: Yes, that’s true.

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Caller two: The cocaine─

Matt Tilley: Moustaches on both of you.

Caller two: ─is literally frowned upon. People that do it are not associated with the rest. They’re just frowned upon.

Matt Tilley: All right, caller two, you’ve made your point. Thank you for setting us straight, for want of a better word.

Joe Hildebrand: Don’t do drugs.

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Attachment BComplainant’s submissions

The complainant submitted the following to the licensee:

I would like to make a formal complaint about a recent talkback conversation aired on June 18, during the 5 o'clock program on Triple M, which I believe was discriminatory to Colombia and Colombian people.

[Cites relevant comments].

All of these comments are incredibly discriminatory towards Colombia and Colombian people, insinuating that the civil war in Colombia is a laughing matter and that Colombian people are comparable to 'chimpanzees'. I also find very inappropriate to suggest that all Colombians use drugs or to suggest that backpackers go to Colombia to use drugs as a major attraction.

As an Australian and Colombian dual citizen I have closely felt the effects of the war in Colombia and I have personally felt the damage that this type of comments can cause to Colombia as a nation and to the people of Colombia.

He subsequently submitted the following to the ACMA:

As you see in [the licensee representative’s] letter attached, he states that the segment was ‘designed to be humorous’.

In particular I feel that the segment could incite serious contempt or ridicule of nationals of Colombia when they state when referring to Colombians and cocaine that ‘everybody has it, is on it, sells it’ and that ‘…we are saying that Colombians love it’.

While the station manager has sent a private apology and state they didn’t know it was going to be offensive, I believe that it is part of their code of practice to ensure they do not create segments that use comments that are racially fuelled and I feel they should be made accountable.

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Attachment CLicensee’s submissionsThe licensee responded to the complainant as follows:

The segment was created in the context of widespread reporting about the 2014 World Cup recently held in Brazil. It commenced with references to the Colombia soccer team’s history, and later turned towards what, besides soccer, may be associated with the South American country. It was in these circumstances that our announcers explored whether a stereotype exists that Colombia is synonymous with cocaine production and use.

Our announcers spoke to two callers, both of whom identified as being Colombian. The first caller stated that there were many ‘great things’ about Colombia and confirmed that although Colombia might have been linked to cocaine in the 1980s this was no longer the case. The second caller also challenged this stereotype, confirmed that Colombians ‘frowned upon’ cocaine use and stated that Colombians do not take cocaine. As part of the on-air discussion our callers referred to the social harm caused by the drug trade in Colombia and the complex economic conditions which have driven farmers to grow the coca plant.

On 20 June 2014, our announcers addressed the concerns raised by some members of the Colombian community by clarifying the intention of the segment. They confirmed that the segment should not be perceived as being disrespectful to Colombia or the Colombian people. They explained that the segment instead sought to ‘de-bunk a myth’. Our announcers reiterated the sentiments of our callers and confirmed that they are now better informed about the socio-economic realities in Colombia.

We note from your correspondence that you believe our announcers made comments comparing Colombian people to chimpanzees. Please note that in commenting on goalkeeper René Higuita, our announcer did not in fact compare him, or any Colombian nationals, to chimpanzees. Rather, he marvelled at Higuita’s famous and unique ability to save goals from a handstand position.

[…]

We have reviewed the segment carefully and we do not consider that the segment could reasonably be considered as inciting hatred against, serious contempt for or severe ridicule of any person or group of persons because of ethnicity, nationality or race. The segment was a discussion that was presented reasonably and in good faith. It is our view that the segment does not breach the Codes.

However, we do acknowledge your concern, especially considering your personal experiences of civil unrest in Colombia. Although unintended, we certainly apologise if you felt any unease or disappointment as a result of the segment. Please be assured that it is never our intention to create content that our audience would find inappropriate. In accordance with the comedic and satirical style of ‘The One Percenters’ program, the segment was designed to be humorous. Under no circumstances did we wish to disrespect the nation of Colombia or make light of any of the difficulties faced by its citizens.

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