Woolwich Terrorist Attack Top Trump

Woolwich Terrorist Attack Top Trump

On May 22nd 2013, British Army solider Lee Rigby was brutally murdered by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale in Woolwich, South East London. The attackers claim that they killed the solider to avenge the killings of innocent Muslim's by the British armed forces. One of the passers-by managed to interview one of the attackers, Micheal Adebowale in a video recording in which he has the blood of the victim on his hands and is also holding the weapon he used in the attack. In the video, Adebowale gives a detailed explanation on his reasons for committing the attack claiming "The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one … By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone.". The graphic footage was first broadcasted to the public on ITV new at 6:30pm, it was then broadcast on several other news channels such as BBC news, Channel 4 news and Sky News. OFCOM who is responsible for regulating content broadcasted on television and radio received over 700 complaints as they believed the graphic footage was unsuitable to be broadcasted before the 9pm watershed. The watershed is considered one of OFCOM's most important and effective regulations with 93% understanding why the watershed regulation has been put it place. It restricts any material unsuitable for children from being broadcast before 9pm and after 5:30am, this includes sexual content to violence, graphic or distressing imagery and swearing - expect when it is justified by its context. This rule is what made the case so controversial, as a statutory regulator, OFCOM have the duty of maintaining the public interest. It was argued that broadcasting the graphic footage of the Woolwich Terrorist attack was justified as it was within the public interest to broadcast the footage in order for them to understand the reason behind the attack. Because OFCOM is a statutory body, there political and social factors affecting their decision to continue to broadcast the footage on television before watershed. One of these factors is the fact that the attack was a terrorist attack. Terrorism has had a substantial effect on society since the 9/11 bombings in 2001 and is a re-occuring issue that is always stereotypically depicted as only being an Asian, Islamic issue. It could be argued that broadcasting the footage was legitimised as it can educate children on the true reality of terrorism which can occur in any race or religion as the footage changes the stereotype of the typical terrorist as it features a young black man born and raised in Britain rather than an Asian man from the middle east. This links to another factor which may be another reason why OFCOM decided to allow the footage to be broadcasted