Posted By John P
Here's one for a Friday. How far does Channel 4's duty of care towards residents of the Big Brother House extend? When it became apparent that the Shilpa/Jade/Jo etc. incident was becoming an international incident, and that potentially, the health, safety and welfare of those involved could be compromised (death threats, nervous breakdowns etc.) shouldn't Channel 4 have prevented further potential harm by letting those involved know what was happening? Given that they have a delay in live broadcasting primarily to prevent slanderous comments from being broadcast, shouldn't this have been used as a control measure to prevent further potential harm to the residents?

Posted By John P
Didn't say I cared Peter. I agree with all that you say in fact that's my point. How far can you harm someone for the purposes of so called entertainment.

Posted By MetalMan
I must admit that although I usually steer clear of dismal little programmes like this I watched it just to see what all the fuss was about. Hopefully it will fade away after this incident and never come back.Hopefully those god awful phone in quiz shows will get banned soon as well. Just another form of mind control for the masses in my opinion, feed us all with a diet of mindless drivel and sooner or later we will loose the ability to think and question for ourselves.
That's my lot on the subject.

Posted By Peter Younger
I say stop watching such trivial hog wash, bring back little house on the prairre, or Dangermouse and other quality shows!!

real T.V.

Posted By Freddie Davros
Thank you to John for raising this issue.

To be honest, I'm shocked at Peter's suggestion that we shouldn't care about it. Are Shilpa Shetty, Jade Goody and Jo O'Meara somehow less than real people for choosing to take part in Celebrity Big Brother? And does this sub-human status mean that they're not entitled to the same health and safety at work protection as the rest of us? I hate to say it, but to me, that sounds very similar to Nazi justification for slaughtering the Jews.

Here are the facts as I see it (please forgive any inaccuracies caused by misinterpreting of or by the press). Jade Goody was in the Priory for a week after leaving the house. Jo O'Meara has been under the constant watch of psychiatrists in her hotel room. To the best of our knowledge, both of these people were fit and healthy before they went in. To me, this suggests that there may have been a breach of health and safety regulations, either by Endemol, Channel 4 or another party involved - and I believe this needs to be investigated.

It's true that many professional people like to consider themselves morally or intellectually superior both to those who enjoy watching the show, and to those who take part in it. But that doesn't change the fact that the participants are real people. Saying "it could never happen to me" is no justification for not taking health and safety seriously.

Whether diseases occur on building sites, in factories, in hospitals, in kitchens or on low-brow trash TV shows makes no difference - either way, real people are at risk, and an investigation needs to be conducted to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

Joe says that the participants probably received full briefing beforehand - but that's no excuse either. If there was any concern that Jo, Jade, or anyone else might go crazy as a result of being on the show, either directly because of the show's activities, or indirectly due to the media fall-out, then they should never have been allowed on the show in the first place.

I think that if there were to be a whitewash of this incident - or worse still, no investigation at all - then it would create a nasty precedent for workplaces throughout the UK, not just those in the entertainment industry.

Posted By holyterror72
Peter,

I second that.

Posted By Alice
It is slightly more annoying that the whole point of Big Brother is to show people behaving normally and to explore what people are really like. Yet when people have been themselves and expressed what they really think...etc. they are griefed to the edge of suicide (with seemingly very little ongoing support from BB / C4 / Endemol) for doing so. I think the makers of BB should take at least some of the responsibility for ensuring ex-housemates remain sane. I can see why they want to be seen to disassociate themselves from the whole 'racism' thang, but it is they who could've prevented it from escalating to the extent that it has.

Posted By Dave Wilson
So BB don't tell the BBers what is going on then??? just remember that this is edited by C4 etc so that they get 'good copy' with their programme.

You only get to see what they want you to see and being nice to Shilpa was not on their radar!

George Orwell and all that!

Posted By Joe Doc
John P et al,

I am willing to concede the potentially fudged issue over volenti etc, but in this case who owes the greater duty of care to whom?

Is it BB with their editorial power or the individual management agents of said celebrities who viewed same TV and heard of same outcries as everyone else but failed to advise clients of unfolding events and take necessary action, i.e remove or advise said clients to leave the show.

My guess is the latter did not choose to remove clients under the guise of ain't no such thing as bad PR (as was already stated by someone).

Posted By Jason911
John,

I understand what you are saying about the formula one but surely the reason many watch that, or any other dangerous sport is the danger and the ultimate possibility that competitors could seriously get hurt, which makes it great viewing for some at least and H&S is put to one side.

What I am saying is its exactly the same in the BB house. Its essentially car crash or shock TV and everyone knows it. I mean any BB contestant who subsequently claims mental illness should be held accountable for failing to take reasonable care of their own H&S.


I also would also argue as I am sure the producers will, that most of the controversy that is created in the house is essentially no different from most everyday life situations, but for some reason we find the fact of them being shown on TV as simply outrageous.

Jay

Posted By Jason911
Peter,

They are told the risks prior to entry. Even if they were not, who in this country could claim not to know what B.B is all about, even if they had never seen it?

ITS A REALITY TV SHOW AND THEY ARE ALL ABOUT PUBLIC HUMILIATION FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF THE MASSES!!!!!

No Offense Peter, but surely your 'brigade' would argue that a solider in an army should never ever get shot at!!!

Jay

Posted By Peter Longworth
I don't remember joining any brigade except maybe the anti - hypocrisy brigade.
As for the armed forces I don't expect them not to be shot at but I do expect that they should be supplied with the best PPE available to protect them as much as possible when they are shot at.

Posted By Claire C
Big Brother is watching.

He has censored poor Alice's comments....

Big Brother strikes again!