TVNZ has won a battle against the Broadcasting Standards Authority, which it believes is becoming increasingly conservative.

The High Court has ruled that an oral sex scene on the show Hung was not gratuitous, and that the authority was "plainly wrong" to rule against it.

The authority, which has taken a new conservative stance since its panel was reconstituted last year, has made a number of rulings against broadcasters recently, including two this past week against TVNZ.

The broadcaster says it is "concerned at a number of decisions that lack consistency, and in our opinion fail to interpret public expectations correctly".

TVNZ suggested that "a review of the structure and operation of broadcasting standards regulation may be timely".

It indicated last week that it would return to the High Court to challenge the ruling against the Sunday programme in which a police officer used the "f-word" when describing his heat-of-the-moment exchange with Aramoana killer David Gray.

TVNZ and TV3 joined forces last month to take the authority to the High Court over rulings against Hung and TV3's soap opera Home and Away.

Although Justice Asher ruled in favour of TVNZ, he upheld the decision against the Home and Away scene, in which a young girl was shown straddling and kissing a boy while wearing only a bra.

That ruling could prove more significant because it rejected a number of approaches the broadcasters were relying on for their appeals.

TV3 had argued the authority ignored its own previous similar rulings, ignored context and the content of other G-rated programmes, and gave insufficient reasons.

Justice Asher rejected those arguments and allowed for the authority to depart from the earlier rulings.

He said "current norms of good taste and decency" were "a somewhat fluid concept".

There were no absolutes in this area.

He ruled against the Hung decision only on the ground that it was "plainly wrong".

The authority had said the scene, in which the main character – a male prostitute – gives a woman oral sex, was "solely for the purpose of shocking and titillating the audience".

Justice Asher disagreed, saying the scene occurred late at night, in an AO-rated show in which sex "plays an inevitable part of the narrative".

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said constantly appealing to the High Court was costly and should not be necessary.

"We need a system that promotes clarity and consistency for broadcasters. Without it we may end up with a haphazard and costly guessing game, or alternatively a `safe' approach that takes us uncomfortably in the direction of American constraints on free-to-air broadcasting."

ian.steward@star-times.co.nz

- Sunday Star Times