Gordon Ramsay cleared in puffin row
Gordon Ramsay has been cleared of breaking broadcasting rules after sparking anger by eating puffins on TV show The F Word.
Complaints followed the scene in which Ramsay’s companion in Iceland was seen breaking the necks of four puffins and skinning them. The puffins’ hearts were taken out to eat as a special Icelandic delicacy.
Watchdog Ofcom received 42 complaints about the July episode of the Channel 4 show.
Viewers complained that eating the puffins was cruel, consuming their fresh hearts was offensive and that puffins were a species under threat.
But Ofcom said viewers who watched The F Word were used to items featuring the rearing, hunting and killing of animals for food.
The watchdog said the sequence occurred in Iceland, where the puffin is not a protected species and a popular part of the national diet.
The birds were caught and killed in what appeared to be a fast and humane way with minimal suffering, it said.
It did not "consider that this item went beyond the general expectations of the audience for this post-watershed food and cookery programme".
Ofcom also stated that it had received 31 complaints from viewers over a BBC News report about an incident in Jerusalem. Footage showed a Palestinian man ramming buses and cars with a bulldozer, killing three people before he was shot dead in the cab of the vehicle by an off-duty Israeli soldier.
Ofcom said it considered the matter resolved because the BBC had already said publicly that broadcasting the footage of the moment of death was not editorially justified.
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