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Ofcom reveals most offensive swear words as audiences become less tolerant of discrimination on TV

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

October 1, 2016 | 2 min read

Television viewers and radio listeners are becoming less tolerant of discriminatory language, Ofcom has revealed.

The first study of audience attitudes from the broadcasting regulator since 2010, revealed racist or discriminatory words were considered to be harder hitting and carry more emotional impact than ‘general’ swear words.

Looking at 144 words, the study showed participants recent clips from Big Brother and Don’t Tell The Bride as well as older excerpts from Father Ted and Fawlty Towers in a bid to explore what people were likely to find unacceptable and why.

Tony Close, director of content standards at Ofcom, commented: “People draw the line at racist or discriminatory language…most people see these words as derogatory and insulting. Many were concerned about them being used in programmes at any time, unless there’s very clear justification for it in the programme and how it’s presented to the audience.”

According to the study viewers were more forgiving after the watershed, if the language made sense within a story or character’s context, or feature in an older programme.

The words the UK finds most offensive - defined as ‘strongest language’ in the report - are mostly discriminatory terms and slurs against members of particular communities including words relating to race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. Slurs relating to religion were also considered to be strong language.

Some traditional swears remained in the strong language category, with words including ‘bugger’, ‘bloody’ and ‘arse’ downgraded to ‘mild language’. ‘Bollocks’, ‘pissed’ and ‘shit’ were considered ‘medium language’. A full list can be viewed on the Ofcom website.

The survey also revealed audiences felt offensive language was more problematic on radio rathe than television as its considered a “more intimate medium” where offensive language was rarely heard.

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