The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled that it is acceptable for French-language radio stations to broadcast English songs containing the word “fuck”, even during the day.
Posted at 4:03 p.m.
The organization claims that when all programming is in French, only songs broadcast during the day that frequently use the “F-word” or use it to insult someone violate the code of ethics are given to Canadian private broadcasters.
In English Canada, the organization’s code of ethics limits the broadcast of this word and its variants to late-night broadcasts. But the Council has already recognized that this word does not have the same “brutality” when it is used by French speakers. The CBSC has thus created a different standard for the broadcast of this English word in French-language programs.
In a decision handed down in 2016, the organization concluded that “first of all, in French, the word ‘fuck’ does not have the same vulgar connotation as in English, and then that the language evolves and that it is necessary see it as a reflection of today’s society.
The self-regulatory organization of the broadcasting sector indicated on Wednesday that its French-speaking decision-making committee had studied the complaint of an English-speaking listener, who on December 7, 2021 asked the CBSC questions about the broadcasting of vulgar words in songs in French. English broadcast in Quebec.
This listener then explained that her young children heard “violent, vulgar and sexual language” when they listened to the radio in the car, on a Quebec pop music station, CHXX-FM. The woman quoted the songs in English That’s What I Want by Lil Nas X, Just Look Up of Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi, and abcdefu de Gayle, but also the French-speaking song Gayeby FouKi.
The organization concluded that the occasional presence of the “F-word” was acceptable, even though one of the songs analyzed, abcdefu of Gayle, effectively violated the code of ethics, because the insult was directed several times against people of the entourage of the ex-lover of the singer. In addition, the committee points out that there is a redacted version of this song, which could be broadcast during prime time.
On the other hand, the decision-making committee concludes that the broadcast of the French-language song Gayeby FouKi, “which includes the word ‘fuck’ five times and the word ‘ostia’ once”, met the criteria set out in previous CBSC decisions.