When the legal system goes wrong: Top gear sued over ‘mexican’ insults

KitGuru reports often on legal action cases, often with a little bewilderment. Today we have heard that a Mexican woman has instructed lawyers to take legal action against the BBC's flagship motoring show Top Gear.

For those of you in dear old blighty, you may have seen Jeremy Clarkson and James May having a laugh at a Mexican sports car last Sunday, with May comparing the car to a “a lazy, feckless and flatulent oaf with a mustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat”.

30 Year old Jewellery design student Iris De La Torre has joined the hordes of people making complaints to the BBC, however she says it was “offensive, xenophobic and humiliating”. Top Gear has always been politically incorrect, and that is part of the charm, and hardly to be taken seriously.

She says “I was shocked at what the BBC allowed to be broadcast. I do not understand how such ignorant people hold such high-profile jobs.” Oh deary me.

The BBC said it hasn't received the legal letter but it would handle the case through the appropriate channels when it appears. If this case goes to court, it could be the first to be heard under the new Equality Act, which was initiated last September. The damage to the BBC could be around £1 million, which means that Clarkson might not be getting his bonus next year.

KitGuru says: While the commentary sounds offensive, Top Gear has been known to tread the line, with its tongue firmly in cheek. Should people be so sensitive?

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