Complaint
Seven viewers complained that pictures of the collapse of the Danish player Christian Eriksen and subsequent developments during the Denmark v Finland match were distressing and intrusive.聽 The ECU considered the complaints in the light of the 大象传媒鈥檚 guidelines on Harm and Offence, which make clear that material which risks offending audiences must be justified by its context.
Outcome
The ECU agreed that the coverage of the incident, which included shots of the efforts to resuscitate Eriksen and of his evidently distressed wife, was likely to cause offence, both because of the upsetting nature of some of the images and by the element of intrusiveness they involved.聽 The ECU noted that the choice of shots from the stadium was not in the hands of the 大象传媒 programme team (the pictures being provided by the host broadcaster UEFA), who had no way of anticipating the earliest of the distressing images, which were among the most intrusive.聽 The ECU also noted that the programme team鈥檚 expectations were influenced by a longstanding UEFA protocol covering events of this nature; they recognised that the initial shots of the incident didn鈥檛 conform to those expectations, but assumed from the fact that the UEFA match director then cut to wide shots of the crowd and other players that the protocol was being properly observed.聽 Unfortunately that assumption proved ill-founded, as the remainder of the coverage included several instances of the match director cutting to shots which were closer than a 大象传媒 team would have selected.聽 The ECU agreed with the management of 大象传媒 Sport that the 大象传媒鈥檚 coverage should not have stayed with the pictures from the host broadcaster for as long as it did, and found no contextual justification which would have brought the sequence as a whole within the requirements of the 大象传媒 guidelines on potentially offensive material.
Upheld
Further action
The finding was reported to the management of 大象传媒 Sport and discussed with the programme-makers concerned.聽聽 All those working for 大象传媒 Sport have now been reminded of what action should be taken in the event of a serious incident such as this one, and a wide and generic shot will always be made available for immediate use at future live matches.