Kyle Sandilands’ comments on Paralympics found to breach decency standards

Radio hosts Kyle and Jackie O have been found to have breached decency standards in a segment that referred to the Paralympics as the “Special Olympics” and labelled the games “horrific”.

The finding, handed down by the Australian Communications and Media Authority on Tuesday morning, referred to two episodes of The Kyle and Jackie O Show in September 2021 in which the pair discussed the 2020 Paralympic Games, which were held a year later than scheduled due to COVID.

KIIS FM presenters Kyle and Jackie O have been found to have breached community standards of decency.

Sandilands asked Jackie Henderson, aka Jackie O, if she had been watching the games, adding “it’s horrific, some of the things”. He described a blind high jumper who “veered right” as he approached the bar, and “landed on his arse on the ground”.

Turning his attention to the soccer, he described blind players who were “throwing themselves on the ground” to block the ball.

Claiming to respect the “spirit of the contest”, Sandilands nonetheless observed, “listen, you can be nice to the handicapped, but you don’t have to compare them to the non-handicapped”.

Broadcaster KIIS FM defended the comments by referring to the audience’s familiarity with Sandilands’ use of “low-level coarse language that is ordinarily reserved for private conversation”.

“Mr Sandilands is well known for his turn of phrase, colourful vernacular and blunt manner,” the network’s defence stated. “The audience somewhat ‘self-selects’ so that those that choose to listen are not offended by this manner. Our expectation is that regular Kyle & Jackie listeners would not have been offended by the Paralympics segment.”

The ACMA disagreed, finding “there is nothing to suggest [the audience] would have different standards with respect to comments about people with disabilities than a regular cross-section of the Australian community”.

Tolerance for the tone of Sandilands’ presentation “does not negate the audience’s understanding of potential impacts on other members of the community, particularly when the comments are directly related to groups who have experienced discrimination or marginalisation,” the ACMA found.

The top-rating show already employs a censor. Henceforth it will employ two.Credit: Cole Bennetts

In its ruling, the ACMA found “that Mr Sandilands’ comments were insensitive and hurtful toward the athletes as well as being offensive to the average moderate person in the broader community, including the regular audience of the program, who would have been aware of the potential impact of these comments, not only on the Paralympians that were being described in this manner, but on the wider group of people in Australia with disabilities.”

It thus found that the licensee, Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation Pty Ltd (the registered business name of ARN, which owns the KIIS network), had breached the broadcasting code.

The program was also found to have breached the code on September 3, when Sandilands attacked a journalist over an article in which Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, who lives with a disability, called the broadcaster’s comments “abhorrent, ignorant and ableist”.

Sandilands threatened the journalist from news.com.au, saying he should “expect a visit from me”, and promising that if he wasn’t able to visit him personally “I’ll send around one of me [...] mates just to remind you of your manners”, adding “that’s not a threat, it’s a guarantee”.

The ACMA dismissed the network’s argument that the delivery “was deliberately over the top, unfiltered showmanship” and did not represent any genuine threat. “If one were truly intending to carry out such a threat,” the licensee added, “they would not be mentioning it on live radio”.

The regulator again found the incident represented a breach of the broadcasting code as it “offended against generally accepted standards of decency”.

In response to the findings, ARN has agreed to employ a second censor on the show in order to monitor its adherence to standards of decency, and to deliver sensitivity training to the program hosts, producers, censor and other relevant staff.

The broadcaster will also conduct an independent assessment of the existing controls it has in place to prevent further breaches of the decency requirements.

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