Fact
File 
More
problems for Big Brother on Channel 4 and Alan Sugar accused
of sexism after apprentice quits - June 2007
After
the uproar over the serial mocking of an Indian Bollywood
film star Shilpa Shetty, 31 in the British reality TV Celebrity
Big Brother show in January 2007 (see)
the Celebrity Big Brother winner was in Sheffield on the
Thursday 7th June for Saturday's International Indian Film
Academy Awards.
At
the same time Channel 4 television acted swiftly to prevent
a rerun of the damaging racism row in January by removing
a contestant from the Big Brother house for using offensive
language. Emily Parr who is a 19 year old drama student
from Bristol was evicted within hours of using a racist
term on black housemate Charley Uchea. Although Angela Jain
the head of the show's commissioning team at Channel 4 conceded
that she had not intended to be offensive, she said the
word was used "carelessly rather than maliciously".
Shippla
Shetty commented that she was glad than Channel 4 had taken
action. Channel 4 was then criticized for broadcasting the
offensive exchange of words on the edited highlights programme.
The
Apprentice
The
present series of The Apprentice on BBC1 television is drawing
to a close. The winner will be rewarded with a £100,000
job in Sir Alan Sugar's £800 million business empire.
The series started with eight women, three of them single
mothers taking on eight men is now fighting off accusations
that the tactics used were unfair against the women candidates.
Sir
Alan has been accused of breaching sex discrimination laws
when interviewing contestants. The TUC and the Equal Opportunities
Commission were among those who warned that the show was
sending the wrong signal to business after mother of two
Katie Hopkins was quizzed about her children. Kate Hopkins
finally bowed out of the show saying she did not want to
uproot her family. A fellow contestant Kristina Grimes who
has an 18 year old son was also asked about her family circumstances.
(in the final Kristina Grimes "Apprentice favourite"
was beaten by former English public schoolboy - Simon Ambrose).
General
Secretary of the TUC Brendan Barber said "The Apprentice
is just a show but had last night been a genuine interview,
Kristina and Katie could have had real grounds for complaint
against Sir Alan. Any employer who asks only the female
candidates about how their children and personal circumstances
may affect their ability to do a job could find themselves
in hot water."
Jenny
Watson the Chair of the EOC (Equal
Opportunities Commission) said " Sir Alan is well
aware that women with children can be every bit as successful
in business. It might make for great TV, but the programme
sends an unfortunate message to other employers that questions
about commitment and childcare only apply to women"
jml
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accuracy of the information above.
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