Edmonton TV station apologizes for airing 'Ugly Face' segment (12/17/95)

Edmonton TV station apologizes for airing 'Ugly Face' segment

by Andrij Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - An Edmonton-based affiliate of the CTV network, CFRN television, has aired an apology for having carried the defamatory "The Ugly Face of Freedom" segment of the CBS "60 Minutes" newsmagazine last fall.

On Sunday, October 22, following the trademark "I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Ed Bradley, I'm Morley Safer" introduction to the program, the screen went to black, the "60 Minutes" logo appeared with the legend "produced by CBS-TV in New York," and an announcer of CFRN Television read the following statement, accompanied by text:

"Last October [October 23, 1994] , the '60 Minutes' program broadcast a segment regarding freedoms in an independent Ukraine. '60 Minutes' subsequently broadcast a number of letters of complaint.

"CFRN television particularly regrets the producers' implication that Ukrainians are, among other things, genetically intolerant of other racial, ethnic or religious groups.

"While not involved in any way with the production of the program, CFRN television would like to apologize to the Ukrainian community in Alberta for any harm or embarrassment the '60 Minutes' program may have created."

The CBS program had suggested there is a climate of intolerance in Ukraine, and in a concluding statement, "60 Minutes" correspondent Morley Safer implied that Ukrainians are "genetically anti-Semitic."

Following the offending broadcast in 1994, Ukrainians throughout North America and officials of Ukraine's diplomatic missions in the U.S. and Canada, filed protests with CBS and the various other networks and affiliates who carried the "Ugly Face" segment.

The Edmonton station's apology was hailed as a victory by Dmytro Jacuta, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress's Alberta Provincial Council, who had lobbied for the statement.

Mr. Jacuta said this was the first time a full on-air apology for content of the program was aired by a TV station. The Alberta UCC president added that CFRN-TV's apology shows "there is no reason why a similar apology can't be broadcast by every TV station that showed the 'Ugly Face' program," and encouraged Ukrainians throughout North America to keep up the pressure on CBS.

Earlier in the year, The Global CanWest network, whose affiliates carried the offending segment in Winnipeg, Toronto, Saskatoon, Regina, Vancouver and the Maritimes, issued a written apology to complainants "for any hurt or prejudice that the broadcast of this segment may have caused the Ukrainian community" and undertook not to rebroadcast it.

When pressed to do so by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Global also agreed to take full responsibility for its programming and institute a policy of pre-broadcast review.

In addition to the apology, Mr. Jacuta said Edmonton's CFRN-TV also undertook to give the Ukrainian community equal time to balance the detrimental effect of the CBS broadcast. Mr. Jacuta said CFRN would produce a program highlighting positive aspects of life in Ukraine.

"[The Alberta UCC] will provide CFRN with information and contacts," Mr. Jacuta said, "and assist them in preparing a show along the lines of the 'Beautiful Face of Ukraine,' which will likely involve sending on-air anchors in the spring, and will likely focus around five years of Ukrainian independence, freedoms, minority rights and favorable changes."

At press time, officials of CFRN-TV could not be reached to confirm this arrangement.

Mr. Jacuta attributed the success of the Alberta UCC's effort to "persistence" and ongoing pressure on the station and the CRTC. "When we got to a stage where we requested public meetings with CFRN, we got movement," Mr. Jacuta said.

"Initially, the reaction was 'well it's not that bad, and it is balanced,' " Mr. Jacuta said, "but eventually, they came to agree with us that the show as a whole was not well produced, did not reflect the current reality in Ukraine and as such was bad programming."

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