Why do television producers have responsibility to public participants?

              

Illustration Courtesy of Cambridge Tab

Susan Boyle, Gamu Nhengu, Ceri Rees and endless children on Britain's Got Talent - humiliated, rejected, laughed at and jeered. Who says that television producers should protect those public participants? They willingly sign up for it right? In any other genre of television, we would see the disclaimer that 'no animals were harmed in the making of this programme'. For X Factor and the like, that should read 'No man, woman or child has been harmed...' There has been fresh public outcry over the treatment of Ceri Rees in this year's X Factor. Ms Rees is a lady with reported mental health issues and has been shown in the televised auditions stage for 4 years running. It is a public contest, Ms Rees has a right to audition and the judges have always said 'No'. However, to be shown on television each year, when you take into consideration the very high volume of auditionees, shows a high degree of deliberate manipulation. And it is this 'mediation' that raises a number of important questions.