“We do not believe your complaint has raised a significant issue of general importance that might justify further investigation. We will not therefore correspond further in response to additional points, or further comments or questions, made about this issue or our responses to it.”
Awful. Proof that LGBTQ issues are not given weight by leading corporations.
Because I knew so many tumblr users were making complaints about LGBT representation, I specifically chose not to mention it and focus on a different issue I had with the series just to see what sort of response I would receive.
is the communications/broadcasting regulator responsible for all TV and radio programmes in the UK. Since the BBC isn’t taking our complaints seriously let’s go a step higher.
They ask to submit a complaint within 20 working days of the broadcast of the programme so there’s still a bit of time, even though it’s not much. However, even if you’re hitting it close in a week or so: Tell them that you’ve sent a complaint to the BBC and you only received the reply very recently (or that you’re still waiting) AND let them know that the way the BBC has handled this so far has not been satisfying in the least and that’s why you’re taking this issue to Ofcom in the first place.
The BBC flat-out refuses to acknowledge the accusations of queerbaiting and actually shot us down with their “Sherlock and John have never shown any romantic or sexual interest in each other” comment. They also refuse to acknowledge and address any of the other issues that have been brought up in the complaints so far:
increase in violence, yet never acknowledging it as domestic abuse
queercoding villains as sexual predators
awful portrayal of women
misrepresentation of mental illness
bad writing, drop in quality
the fact that the BBC released misleading promo material (”I love you” trailer, “Sherlock’s back & he’s in love” BBC iplayer tweet) that made them directly complicit in the queerbaiting
this is a non-exhaustive list, I’m sure you have more ideas
They ask you to:
Please note the complaint is your sole chance to set out your case to Ofcom. Therefore, please provide us with full details of how you believe the programme was unfair to you and/or how it unwarrantably infringed your privacy. Your complaint should include relevant examples of how and why unfairness/infringement of privacy was caused to you.
Unfortunately there’s a stupid word limit so try and be as short and precise as possible.
Important: DO NOT publish the complaint you’re sending to OFCOM. Once you send it you agree to their non disclosure agreement which means as long as they’re investigating the case no details (”correspondence, documents and other material concerning the complaint”) can be released to the public. It is ok to say that you have sent a complaint though. [x]
Results of the investigations will be published here and there’s an overview with numbers of complaints here.
The Broadcasting Code, in case you’re interested. Our issues probably belong to section 2: Harm and offence.
Now it would make most sense if people who live in the UK could send a complaint. You have to enter your address details. (Not sure how they deal with international complaints, if anyone could shed a light that would be marvellous!) Maybe some people could try it anyway?
So are you telling me they sent out 25,000 identical “Johnlock isn’t real you fucks” response letters? Because my head is swimming in the madness of it all.
No source for 25,000 complaints? but I imagine it was in the thousands. Probably.
i nominate your dad for the best dad ever award like not even just this year but of like all time
“Own it you pussies” just killed me And I agree, he should totally get the best ad ever award
BBC: “And then, Mycroft’s umbrella turned into a sword! And then a gun! And then a drone grenade propelled Sherlock through a second-story window unharmed! And then there’s an island in the middle of the ocean that holds a Hannibal Lector woman with magic powers of mind control! And then Sherlock gets teleported back to his old mansion! And then Sherlock learns the power of love from his psychotic killer sister.”
If you received yesterday’s infamous response from the BBC, use the opportunity to complain about this response. (here) You will be asked at one point, “What is your reason for contacting us on this issue again?” and then be asked to enter the case reference number.
examples for complaints regarding different aspects of the BBC response (also if your complaint wasn’t about queerbaiting)
This sort of follow-up complaint might get your issue to “stage 2″ (= the Editorial Complaints Unit has to deal with it).
“If you are dissatisfied with your reply at this first stage, you can re-contact us in writing within 20 working days explaining why. You may be able to escalate the issue to stage 2 of the complaints process. If so, we will tell you how to do this in our second response.”
“Please raise only one issue in your complaint – multiple issues can cause delays and other complications in replying.” (BBC)
As seen in their response, “Sherlock” was too multi-layered as an issue and they only adressed the queerbaiting. File new complaints about everything else. P. ex.
normalization of abuse
misrepresentation of mental illness
poor quality (plot holes)
OOC behaviour of John and Sherlock
misogynystic use of female roles as plot devices
queercoding of villans
etc.
If you want to address all of the six examples listed above, file six individual complaints.
b) File your complaint until January 31!
The BBC reports monthly about the complaints they receive within a month. (BBC) There are indications that almost 20,000 complaints were filed online in the first 14 days after TFP aired (certainly not all about Sherlock, though). The highest number of complaints in 2016 was in January with 25,000 complaints. So there’s a good chance we will break the record for 2017 with the impact of the Sherlock complaints. If you want to add your complaint to this statistic peak, make your complaint in the remaining days of January! – The number of complaints about Sherlock will naturally drop down in February and the following months. So do it now!
If the complaints get mentioned in the report about January, that’s something we can asked the media later to pick up on.
Sherlock Fandom Archive 