An SBS documentary about the final year of World War II in Europe has been found to have breached the SBS Code of Practice.

Hitler’s Last Year was classified as PG and broadcast on SBS at 5.30pm on 20 March 2021.

But an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found it exceeded the PG requirements for depictions of violence to be mild in impact and not be shown in detail. ACMA also found that the frequency, level of detail of the discussion and visual illustration of distressing themes had a cumulative impact that was not mild and may have been disturbing to some children.

A complainant told ACMA, “It beggars belief that this program could be rated as PG. I do not object to the program material, as it was genuine war footage. However, the graphic content of slaughtered concentration camp victims and bodies of people killed through hanging, was very confronting even for an adult and I cannot believe it would only rate as PG, which is one rung above general exhibition and equates with what I have noted as programs that could be mildly offensive to children. I would have thought this type of very disturbing material, would rate as MA, with a warning to everybody that it contains graphic scenes of mass murder. It makes a nonsense of our rating system to be classified as PG.”

SBS told ACMA it was important for young people to be exposed to historically significant material in a controlled and responsible manner. It took care to edit the original program, removing the most powerful images and editing the comparable footage to reduce the overall impact of the documentary to make it suitable for a PG audience.

Amongst their defence, SBS noted, “Two segments of concentration camp footage are used in the program. In total, they amount to less than 15% of the total time of the documentary. There is less than a minute and a half of footage solely of survivors of the camps. While distressing the images of the survivors retain their dignity. The only dead who are naked are in extreme wide shot, no individual features can be seen, it is the position of their bodies that indicates to the viewer that they are dead. Most of the dead are covered and are lying on the ground being viewed by people in disbelief and incomprehension.”

ACMA agreed with the SBS’s submissions that the content covered in the Program has significant educational merit and could be appropriate for children to watch with parental guidance. In the context of a documentary about the final year of World War II, it is to be expected that distressing themes will be explored. The intention to educate and, to some degree, cause distress to the audience has merit and is entirely appropriate.

However, ACMA did not agree with the SBS’s submission that the importance of educating people, including young people, about the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust permits transcending the protections envisaged as part of the classification framework – in this case the inclusion, under a PG classification, of the material as broadcast

ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said that SBS classified the program as PG, enabling it to be broadcast at any time of the day. However, in accordance with the SBS Code of Practice, depictions of violence in PG programs should be mild in impact and not shown in detail.

“The classification system is an important guide for the public so they can make informed decisions about whether a program is suitable viewing for them,” she said.

“While the documentary by virtue of its topic is distressing and has educational merit for children and adults alike, the depictions of violence and treatment of themes in the documentary that went to air went beyond what can be accommodated under the PG classification category.”

As a result of the investigation, SBS will include the findings in staff training and explore ways of facilitating its audiences making better informed decisions around historical documentaries.