One of the vagaries of European broadcasting is that, for assorted reasons – some financial, some regulatory – TV channels might not always be licensed in the territory that they are broadcasting to. This means that those channels fall under the controls of whatever broadcasting authorities are in charge of the country here they are licensed. British TV regulators OFCOM have never been shy about imposing their rules for UK TV on such channels that are licensed here, even if their broadcasts cannot be seen in the UK. Case in point was Danish TV show Baronessen flytter Ind, which was censured back in 2010 for including a scene shot in a sex shop, where sex toys were shown. This scene was broadcast at 8pm, and OFCOM decided that it was in violation of British watershed rules, despite the fact that the watershed doesn’t exist in Denmark and that material that would be restricted to post-watershed viewing in the UK can be broadcast during the day on Danish TV. It’s extraordinarily silly, but there you go – if the channel chose to be licensed in the UK, then I guess it has to play by UK rules.

But OFCOM seem to have an attitude of ‘do as we say not as we do’ when it comes to such regulation. Last week, they complained to Dutch regulators about softcore channels Babestation and Smile TV, which are registered in the Netherlands but broadcast to British viewers via Sky and Freeview. Broadcasting between 10pm and 6am, the free-to-air channels apparently feature simulated masturbation, faked orgasms and breast fondling, above and beyond their UK licensed (and regularly censured, sometimes banned) rivals. They’ve also featured links to allegedly hardcore websites. All this is annoying to OFCOM, who keep such channels on a very tight leash, inventing viewer complaints and making spurious, unproven claims of ‘harm’ (indeed, OFCOM have been forced to concede that there is no evidence showing that either adults or children are harmed by this material, or the stronger content that remains forbidden even on subscription channels).

But if OFCOM wants to impose its own standards on other European countries, then surely it should have to accept their broadcasters and regulators doing the same? It only seems fair, especially as the rules and regulations that OFCOM apply to channels are entirely arbitrary and not remotely evidence-based? And while I have no love for those chat channels, I have to say that while channel surfing, I have never seen anything on Babestation that is any stronger than the other girlie channels – then again, I don’t have Freeview, so I’ve never see Babestation Xtreme. No doubt a reader can fill me in as to the level of depravity on show.

Still, if OFCOM want to make money from channels who want to avoid the regulations of their own countries, then perhaps they should shut the fuck up about other people taking advantage of the rules to avoid British moral restrictions, and stop expecting the rest of Europe to sign up to their levels of prudishness.