This week the head of Channel 4 Julian Bellamy has defended the right of television to risk offence in its winter programming launch.
‘Audiences know what to expect from Channel 4. They want us to push boundaries, challenge orthodoxies, take risks....even if that means our programmes are not to everyone's tastes,' he said.
And, to varying degrees, I'm inclined to agree with him.
However this is coming from a programmer whose channel I noticed, when watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, insists on broadcasting an obsequious warning before any programme that features an animal being killed or butchered.
The only minority that it is absolutely forbidden to offend, it seems, is vegetarians. How absurd. Why is this? And will Channel 4 ever be 'brave' enough to broadcast the reality of animal death without a warning?
