A television programme showing a man applying an electric belt sander to another man's buttocks has breached standards of good taste and decency, according to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
The latest round of BSA decisions has been announced, featuring 14 new complaints, three of which were upheld.
A
complaint against TV2's late night comedy Balls of Steel was upheld by the authority, after a viewer said the programme "set a dangerous and stupid example, and breached standards of good taste and decency, law and order, and children's interests".
The programme, which screened on May 18, 2007, at 9.30pm, featured two men inflicting serious pain on one another by using an electric belt sander on one man's bare buttocks and hammering a nail through his hand, into a block of wood.
The authority agreed that the segment breached standards of good taste and decency and law and order but did not uphold the complaint against children's interests.
C4's reality series Studentville also came in for criticism from the authority, which deemed the programme breached standards for socially responsible liquor promotion, and law and order.
The half-hour programme followed University of Canterbury students at the Uni Games and showed them at various stages of intoxication.
The BSA ruled that the programme "portrayed the consumption of excessive amounts of liquor as enjoyable and acceptable, while the negative effects of drinking to excess were minimised."
Finally, TV One's Close Up was reprimanded for a segment on repeat drink drivers, in which they followed a convicted drink driver down the street, revealing her name, age, marital status and salary.
Although the woman had not sought name suppression, the authority ruled that the segment singled out the woman and humiliated her for being "in the wrong place at the wrong time".
