Mediaset hits the table in order to protect its reality shows. The communication group, immersed in a deep internal change that has directly affected its grill, is already working on the next television season with a multitude of returns. Among them could be a new edition of Big Brother, a program peppered by controversy in recent years.
The case of Carlota Prado, a contestant on the most recent anonymous edition of the reality show and a victim of sexual abuse inside the house, continues to affect the image of the format. For all these reasons, the corporation to which Telecinco belongs has carried out a new update of its Code of Ethics in order to prevent events like this from happening again.
The “action protocol applicable to reality shows”, as Mediaset has called this new point of the document, is made up of ten measures that will seek to guarantee security among the participants of the formats broadcast on its different channels. Among these rules, the exhaustive analysis that the different programs must carry out regarding the personal lives of their contestants stands out.
“All the members of the list must have previously been subject to a reasonable risk analysis,” reads the update of the Mediaset Code of Ethics. For this, “a medical examination (physical and psychological) carried out by a specialized physician will be carried out, to rule out any type of incompatibility; and an investigation in the family, professional or social environment in order to rule out aggressive or antisocial behaviors, chronic dependencies, etcetera”, according to said document.
With this new protocol, Mediaset closes the door of its formats to “all those applicants with a proven record of violence of any kind in the five years prior to the selection process.” Compliance with these clauses will be in the hands of the producer of each program, “being the exclusive responsibility of it” to carry out the analysis of each profile.
In the same way, during its development, the company in charge of producing each reality show must act in cases of “harassment or sexual abuse, bullying, discrimination based on gender, race, nationality, belief or religion, drug use, physical violence or verbal; the immoderate consumption of alcohol and the use of images of the contestants under its influence”, according to the novelty in the Mediaset Code of Ethics.
