Bij de Berlijnse zender Radio Eins is sinds tijden op zaterdagmorgen een heel interessant radio format te horen, een gast wordt aan de hand van een leugen-test door “Die Profis” ondervraagd. De antwoorden van de gast worden in de uitzending door een psycholoog geduid. Spannende en onderhoudende radio! (Het zou een mooi format zijn voor BNR) In Australie liep het echter mis bij 2Day FM in de ochtendshow van Kyle & Jackie O. Deze leugentest werd rechtstreeks uitzgezonden…
Georgina Robinson
July 29, 2009
Kyle and Jackie O’s Lie Detector segment turned to disaster today when a 14-year-old girl – dragged on the 2Day FM radio show by her mother – angrily revealed she had been raped. The girl, who had been brought on to undergo a lie detector test about her mother’s concerns about her drug and sex experience, told Kyle Sandilands before the questions started: “I’m scared … it’s not fair.”
The mother told the presenters she was worried about her daughter’s use of drugs and partying, before going on to ask the teenager if she ever skipped school. The mother then asked her daughter: “Have you ever had sex?” The 14-year-old replied: “I’ve already told you the story about this … and don’t look at me and smile because it’s not funny.” After a pause she then raised her voice and said: “Oh OK … I got raped when I was 12 years old.” Sandilands hesitated before asking “Right … is that the only experience you’ve had?” The girl’s mother interrupted, saying she found out about the rape only “a couple of months ago”. Jackie O then said they would drop the lie detector test as they had been unaware of the rape incident.
An Australian Communications and Media Authority spokesman said it had received “several” phone calls and written letters of complaint about the segment. However complaints had to be first made directly to 2Day FM, and could be acted on by ACMA if listeners felt the station had not dealt with it properly. He said there was no regulation that required radio stations to implement a seven second delay on broadcasts.
‘Irresponsible’
NSW Community Services minister Linda Burney slammed the segment as ‘‘in very poor taste and highly irresponsible’’. ‘‘I have listened to the segment and I am appalled at what I’ve heard,’’ she said. ‘‘And it was apparent that the announcers were only interested in shock value and entertainment and weren’t at all concerned about the welfare and wellbeing of a 14 year old.’’ DoCS had the contact details of both the 14-year-old and her mother and was trying to contact them to arrange counselling and assistance, she said.
‘Appalling’
Karen Willis, manager at the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, said the segment was “appalling on a number of levels”. “First, an adult person asking a child about their sexual experiences is not on, and to do that in a public arena is quite frankly harassment of a child,” she said. “Then when [the girl’s] answer came, to glibly ask whether she’d had any other experiences, rather than getting her off air as soon as possible … it’s abuse of a child really.” Ms Willis said it was clear the girl’s mother did not understand the impact sexual assault had on a child. “I have serious concerns about [the] mum and her behaviour and I’m hoping there has been some sort of report,” she said. “It sounds like she’s tried to tell [her] mum and she hasn’t taken it seriously. “[Rape is] a serious crime that a little girl should not have to experience and, at 12, she is a little girl.”
‘Didn’t know’
2DayFM general manager Jenny Parkes issued a statement saying: “All due care and consideration was given to the family and clearly we didn’t know anything about the incident. “The moment we became aware of it was live on air and we shut it down as soon as we possibly could. “As is only appropriate, we are offering all the assistance we can to the family, including counselling, in what is of course an extraordinarily difficult situation.”