THE’Agcom, Italian equivalent of the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) imposed a fine of 62,500 euros on Walt Disney. The American company is sanctioned for the broadcast, on the Fox channel of which it owns, of an episode of the animated series The Griffins parodying the Nativity. The transalpine audiovisual gendarme estimated that he could “harm the physical, psychological and moral development of minors”, according to the deliberation relayed
by Italian media Thursday.
The offending episode, Jesus, Mary and Joseph! (renamed “The Bible according to Saint Peter” in France) is from season 11, launched in 2012 in the United States. It consists of a humorous and offbeat rereading of the birth of Jesus whose main protagonists are embodied by characters from satirical fiction. The Agcom accuses him of “the repeated and gratuitous use of vulgar expressions, of profanity and the offense to confessions and religious feelings” which it considers inappropriate for one hour of general public broadcasting.
The episode was broadcast last March at 6 p.m. In its defense, Disney argued that the Fox channel is available in Italy on channel 100, “very far from thematic channels dedicated to children (channel 600)” and that The Griffins is aimed at an adult audience appreciating “the stylistic and narrative vein of animated comedy”.
Arguments that Agcom did not take into account. On the contrary, she considered that the content of the episode could disrupt “the complex processes of learning by experience” as well as “the discernment between different or opposing values” through which “the personality of minors is built and expands “.
“Satire cannot pass above the offense to a cult”
The day after the episode was broadcast, Roberto Calderoli, vice-president of the Senate, and deputy Daniele Belotti, both members of the far-right party The Northern League had sent a report to Agcom, demanding that ‘it is never rebroadcast.
On Facebook, Roberto CalderoliWelcomed the decision of Agcom and that the entity “recognized that these dialogues, offensive even to those who are not practicing Catholics, were broadcast on a time slot [grand public] and in a form such as the cartoon, clearly aimed at children and adolescents. “And to add:” This sanction also reaffirms that satire and freedom of expression cannot pass above the offense to a religious cult. “
In Italy, blasphemy was decriminalized in 1999 but remains an administrative offense. “Insults or outrageous words against the divinity” are punishable by a fine of 309 euros.