🚀 go-pugleaf

_The Australian_ newspaper reports today on the fairly routine investigation
by the Australian Broadcasting Authority into a TV network which exceeded its
hourly limit on the number of commercials screened, specifically during a
screening of _The African Queen_ in November last year (see also
 www.news.com.au).

The network's defense was that it needed the extra advertising revenue to
"make up for the commercial-free screening of _Schindler's List_ a few days
later."  The regulation which allows this make-up practice was designed to
cover the networks against losses concerning commercial-free screenings of
charity events.

The network's decision to screen the movie without commercials was defended as
equivalently charitable, on the grounds that its content made advertising
"insensitive and possibly offensive to many members of the community".

This prompts me to ask whether similar special conditions have been created
for TV screenings of this or any other film in other countries?  Is it only
_Schindler's List_ that is treated differently?

Kate Bowles
Communication & Cultural Studies
University of Wollongong

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