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Big Brother racism complaints hit 2,000
Leigh Holmwood and Stephen Brook
Tuesday January 16, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk
The number of complaints to Ofcom about alleged racist abuse on Celebrity Big Brother has rocketed from 200 to 2,000 overnight.
Ofcom confirmed yesterday that it had received more than 200 complaints about alleged racisim in the Celebrity Big Brother house - today that figure has shot up to around 2,000. It is believed that a number of websites are urging people to contact Ofcom about the issue.
"They are coming in in their droves. I believe that a lot of them have come in by email," an Ofcom spokeswoman said.
Channel 4 has said it will not tolerate any racist abuse on Celebrity Big Brother and confirmed that Jack Tweed called fellow housemate Shilpa Shetty a "cunt", not a "Paki".
The broadcaster was responding after bloggers and the Indian media picked up on the exchange between Tweed and Shilpa, the Bollywood star.
On the Celebrity Big Brother highlights show in which the incident featured, what Tweed said was bleeped out, fuelling the controversy about alleged racism on the show.
But a Channel 4 spokeswoman has confirmed that the word in question was "cunt", not "Paki".
It is understood that if Tweed had used a racist term of abuse, it would probably not have been censored for editorial reasons, in order to highlight an aspect of his character.
The Channel 4 spokeswoman said the broadcaster had received no complaints from Shetty, nor had regulator Ofcom been in touch about viewers complaining of racism towards the Asian housemate on Celebrity Big Brother.
Ofcom confirmed yesterday that it had received more than 200 complaints from viewers over what they saw as racism towards Shilpa by fellow housemates Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara.
"We don't tolerate any racist abuse in any form," the Channel 4 spokeswoman said. "Big Brother is closely monitoring all the housemates and will take appropriate measures to reprimand such behaviour where necessary."
Jade Goody's mother, Jackiey Budden, also repeatedly referred to Shilpa as "the Indian" while she was on the show and refused to pronounce her name.
Over the weekend, former beauty queen Danielle and ex-S Club 7 star Jo poked fun at Shilpa's accent.
The incidents have provoked Big Brother fans to debate the racism question on websites.
An Ofcom spokeswoman said last night that the regulator would investigate the complaints.
She said: "Quite a lot of websites have been discussing the issue and urging people to get in contact with us. We will look into each individual complaint."
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