Last Week Tonight censorship

[SwitchToVirgin]

I notice that Last Week Tonight has been removed from the schedule tonight, presumably because it is critical of the British government.  This is shameful censorship.

[wayners]

It seems that the new episode was shown on Sunday in the US on the 23rd June but we are still waiting for the new episodes

[Mark39 · Accepted solution]

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@SwitchToVirgin wrote:

I notice that Last Week Tonight has been removed from the schedule tonight, presumably because it is critical of the British government.  This is shameful censorship.

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That's a bit of an assumption. Viewer Relations are the people to contact for comment on programming. You can email them  via viewerr@sky.uk

[SwitchToVirgin]

I've seen it and it's basically a very critical summary of the last 14 years of Tory government in the UK.  I can't think of any other reason it should be pulled at the last minute only in the UK.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@SwitchToVirgin wrote:

I've seen it and it's basically a very critical summary of the last 14 years of Tory government in the UK.  I can't think of any other reason it should be pulled at the last minute only in the UK.

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That will be due to OFCOM broadcasting regulations with us being close to an election. No type of political content is allowed unless its balanced and unbiased and gives fair coverage to all the other political parties. Therefore an entire long segment tearing apart the recent Tory government would cause the show to have to be pulled from the UK TV schedule. If it was just a fairly short segment it would be cut, or replaced with another segment ( which Last Week Tonight have done previously for segments they knew would be cut from the UK broadcast).

[nolte]

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@SwitchToVirgin wrote:

I've seen it and it's basically a very critical summary of the last 14 years of Tory government in the UK.  I can't think of any other reason it should be pulled at the last minute only in the UK.

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Electoral broadcast law is the law and even with imported content, sky need to follow it.

This is covered with section 6 of the ofcom code/rules covering 'election period' meaning when parliament is dissolved. 

[JonD1492]

I understand why the episode was pulled, but it had better get broadcadt AFTER the Elections have finished!

If Sky dont show this episide at all, I'll be extremely angry!

Let's hope we get a double-bill on Friday 5th July instead, to catch-up.

[MarkGoldsmith]

Well its hardly a continuing drama so it's not like it is a necessity for it to be broadcast prior to future episodes.

At best I could potentially see it just being put in the on-demand catalog after the election but even then it doesn't really matter if the episode is available or not.

[Timelord2018]

Previous episodes are available On Demand until 31st December 2025, I doubt they will add this episode though

[TimmyBGood]

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@SwitchToVirgin wrote:

  This is shameful censorship.

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a) There's no absolute protection of 'free speech' in the UK, and certainly not on broadcast media.

b) As noted above, the period before a General Election is covered by particular regulation on broadcasting which all previous Governments, whatever their political slant, have approved.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/132081/Broadcast-Code-Section-6.pdf 

[Timelord2018]

Will be made available On Demand later today

https://deadline.com/2024/06/john-oliver-uk-election-roast-stream-sky-censorship-fears-1235982449/

[xenon81]

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@SwitchToVirgin wrote:

I've seen it and it's basically a very critical summary of the last 14 years of Tory government in the UK.  I can't think of any other reason it should be pulled at the last minute only in the UK.

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Something containing criticism of a political party  (whether they're the governing party, opposition, or any other) without a right of reply  can't be shown in the run-up to an election. They're free to show it on linear TV from 5th July onwards. 

[JonD1492]

Well, it seems Sky has NO INTENTION of broadcasting it, but the episode is legitimately available to download/stresm from Sky's on-demand and catch-up service as of today! I've just downloaded it, and it is complete and uncut, but with it being a stream, it's only going to remain available for another three weeks. 😭

Sky really has no excuse to keep this episode from being broadcast after 5th July, so please get it on air before the next episode airs at the end of July.

[nolte]

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@JonD1492 wrote:

Sky really has no excuse to keep this episode from being broadcast after 5th July, so please get it on air before the next episode airs at the end of July.

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Any one who wants to check it out, will probably have streamed it by now (I watched it last Wednesday evening through sky q) so airing it on 5th July would just be to a very very small audience.

[Ev71]

Streaming has different OFCOM rules to broadcast TV.

It's available until July 24th on Sky Go. Otherwise it's likely to be broadcast after the election is finalised and more than likely before the next episode is due.

Of course if you don't like those rules, whoever your MP is on Friday is the one you should bring it up with.