{"id":2476,"date":"2007-01-17T12:44:02","date_gmt":"2007-01-17T12:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/01\/17\/brit-asians-lead-wave-of-celeb-bb-criticism\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T16:47:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T16:47:08","slug":"brit-asians-lead-wave-of-celeb-bb-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2007\/01\/17\/brit-asians-lead-wave-of-celeb-bb-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Brit Asians lead wave of Celeb BB criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"BRITISH Asians Meera Syal and former Big Brother contestant Narinder Kaur have led a wave of criticism against the treatment of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother.<\/strong> <\/div>\n

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More than 10,000 viewers have complained to TV watchdog Ofcom and Channel 4 after watching housemates Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara target the 31-year-old actress on a daily basis. <\/div>\n

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Shetty, who has now become second favourite to win the show behind fellow housemate Cleo Rocos, has been called a \u201cdog\u201d and accused of wanting to be \u201cwhite\u201d by the trio. In last nights show Goody\u2019s boyfriend, Jack, is heard telling Shetty to pick out left-over chicken bone\u2019s flushed down the toilet with her teeth. <\/div>\n

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But while an official statement by Channel 4 has said they are monitoring the situation closely, playwright and novelist Meera Syal has accused the broadcaster of putting viewing figures ahead of stepping in to end Shetty\u2019s suffering. <\/div>\n

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Viewing figures for the show have averaged 4.5 million, up from 3.9 million last week, since the controversy erupted. <\/div>\n

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“There is a very thin line between what is entertainment and a vile spectacle and I think we are in that area now,” Syal told the BBC Asian Network. <\/div>\n

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“What this treatment of Shilpa has done is remind a lot of Asian people in Britain of the type of uncomfortable treatment they’ve received themselves over the years,” she added. <\/div>\n

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“This is bullying and we mustn’t forget the impressionable people who watch this show.” <\/div>\n

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\u201cI have great admiration for the way Shilpa has handled herself. But Channel 4 has been obviously rubbing their hands at the audience figures because everybody is talking about it now,” she said. <\/div>\n

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\"\"Former Big Brother star Narinder Kaur also hit out at Channel 4 and Endemol, the makers of the programme, saying they were setting a bad example by allowing Shetty\u2019s treatment to continue. <\/div>\n

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“Millions of youngsters watch Big Brother and Endemol should set an example – they shouldn’t tolerate the way Shilpa is being treated.” <\/div>\n

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“I wasn’t surprised when people failed to pronounce Shilpa’s name. When I was in the house six years ago they couldn’t say my name and just shortened it to Naz. But I am shocked at the level of ignorance that these girls have shown,” she said. <\/div>\n

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“To mock someone’s culture for being different from yours is racist, and it is disgusting to watch.” <\/div>\n

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Writing for The Guardian, Novelist Hari Kunzru said: \u201cJackiey’s refusal to learn her name was straightforwardly racist – every British Asian will have had that conversation at least once, complete with self-righteous complaints about the “difficulty” of the task. It was a very ugly piece of TV and I’m glad people have felt uncomfortable enough to complain.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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Labour MP Keith Vaz has tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons about Miss Shetty’s treatment. <\/div>\n

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‘We would not tolerate this kind of racism on other types of television programme and we should not do so on a programme that is watched by millions,’ he said. <\/div>\n

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Hertfordshire Police have also revealed they are investigating two e-mails sent to Channel 4 in which threats were made against specific housemates. <\/div>\n

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Although they did not confirm whether the e-mails were related to the controversy, they did confirm they had received a complaint about racist behaviour in the house. <\/div>\n

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Meanwhile Carphone Warehouse, sponsors of the show, have denied some reports suggesting they close to ending their sponsorship deal because of the controversy. <\/div>\n

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A spokesperson for the telecommunications company told BBC News Online they had<\/div>\n

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\u201cfull faith\u201d in the broadcaster in dealing with allegations of racism. <\/div>\n

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<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Related Articles:<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Celeb BB in massive \u2018racism\u2019 row<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

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Bolly babe getting flirty in BB house!<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRITISH Asians Meera Syal and former Big Brother contestant Narinder Kaur have led a wave of criticism against the treatment of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother. More than 10,000 viewers have complained to TV watchdog Ofcom and Channel 4 after watching housemates Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara target the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}