- Date:
- 30 Apr 2013
The Danish Gender Equality Act does not imply an obligation to give the same amount of airtime to sports involving female athletes as to sports involving male athletes, according to the Danish Board of Equal Treatment
The Danish Gender Equality Act does not imply an obligation to give the same amount of airtime to sports involving female athletes as to sports involving male athletes, according to the Danish Board of Equal Treatment.
A female viewer complained to the Danish Board of Equal Treatment that a public service television station was giving more airtime to sports involving male athletes than sports involving female athletes.
The viewer argued that the television station's sports coverage discriminated against women, claiming that the unequal amount of airtime was a disincentive to women's desire to participate in sports and adversely affected women's possibilities of excelling at sports and, additionally, that the failure to show female athletes greatly affected the Danish population's gender perception. Consequently, the complainant claimed, the television station should be ordered to give the same amount of airtime to sports involving male athletes as to sports involving female athletes.
The television station argued primarily that the Board of Equal Treatment was not competent to hear the complaint since the Board could not order the television station to give the same amount of airtime to female and male athletes. That aside, the television station argued that it was guilty of neither direct nor indirect discrimination as female athletes were not placed in a particularly disadvantageous position because of the television station's sports programmes.
First and foremost, the Board disallowed the television station's plea for dismissal of the complaint. The Board then decided in favour of the television station, stating that the principle of equal treatment of men and women does not imply an obligation to show equal amounts of sports involving male and female athletes.
Accordingly, the television station did not discriminate its sports coverage.
Norrbom Vinding notes
- that the decision shows that the Board of Equal Treatment applies a very broad interpretation of its subject-matter jurisdiction; and
- that the principle of equal treatment cannot serve to require television stations – and probably other electronic media as well – to make sure that sports involving female athletes are given the same coverage as sports involving male athletes.
