Internalmemos.com, a site which posts corporate memos and communications, has a memo from MTV Europe Broadcast Standards Manager Mark Sunderland which outlines what videos should not be played during the current war with Iraq:
Dear all
In the light of the outbreak of war in Iraq in the last 12 hours, our recommendations for the scheduling and content of videos and programmes are as follows:
1. Video recommendations
Obviously, there will be heightened public sensitivity to representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home. The ITC Programme Code requires us not to broadcast material which offends against good taste or is offensive to public feeling. We therefore recommend that videos featuring the following are not shown at the moment:
war
soldiers
war planes
bombs
missiles
riots and social unrest
executions
other obviously sensitive material
Examples include:
System of a Down “Boom!” – anti-war video containing facts and figures about, amongst other things, the projected casualties in the war in Iraq.
Aerosmith “Don’t want to miss a thing” – contains footage from the film “Armageddon”.
Manic Street Preachers “So Why So Sad” – contains footage of soldiers being killed and man throwing a hand grenade.
Passengers/U2 “Miss Sarajevo” – contains missiles, guns and buildings being blown up.
Bon Jovi “This ain’t a love song” – contains war scenes and victims in distress.
Iggy Pop “Corruption” – contains wars, riots, guns and captions “we love guns” and “we love rifles”.
Paul Hardcastle “19” – contains war footage.
Radiohead “Lucky” – contains war footage including injured children.
Billy Idol “Hot in the City” – contains an atomic explosion.
Armand van Helden “Koochy” – contains an atomic explosion and ships being blown up.
Trick Daddy “Thug Holiday” – contains soldiers being killed at war.
Furthermore, videos with words such as “bomb”, “missile”, “war” or other sensitive words in the artist or song title should not be shown at the moment.
Examples include:
Outkast “B.O.B (Bombs over Baghdad)” – song title may offend.
Radiohead “Invasion” – song title may offend.
Megadeth “Holy Wars” – song title may offend.
Gavin Friday “You, Me and World War Three” – song title may offend.
B-52s videos.
Read the full memo here.
We’re unaware of a Radiohead video called “Invasion” so the mention above was a little confusing.
(thanks to Alan)
UPDATE: We’ve been told that the video called “Invasion” may be one of the promotional Kid A blips that were shown on the Web and TV. (thanks to Simon)
