According to the Parents Television Council, a renowned television watchdog, there have been at least 624 torture scenes in the primetime television slot from the year 2002 through 2005, a very significant increase over the previous years. In addition, majority of these torture scenes are found on the popular television show 24, more than in any other show.

Melissa Caldwell, the Council's Senior Director of Programs, said, “24 is the worst offender on television: the most frequent, most graphic, and the leader in the trend of showing the protagonists using torture.”

24, an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning series created by Joel Surnow and Ribert Cochran, is a drama-action-thriller broadcast by Fox Network in the Unites States and syndicated worldwide. The show is structured in a real-time format, which follows the life of Jack Bauer, a federal agent who attempts to prevent terrorist attacks. Being an action packed series, the story lines mostly entail a lot of torture scenes, both physical and psychological. For the viewers and avid fans of 24, this is a distinct feature of the show, which makes it one of the “ratings giant” in the television circuit. However, this is also something that rouses many media watchdogs just like the Parents Television Council.

Whether it’s suffocating, cutting of a body part of whatever pain-inducing approach, the series has caught the attention of many spectators often sparking debates about how the series depicts interrogations and treatment of prisoners, and how the approaches in the show are also used in real life.

Ultimately, the most alarming, according to experts, is that such brutal scenes has inspired soldiers in real life to interrogate prisoners without appropriate training and apply what they see on television. At present, the people behind 24 have not released any statement or comment about the issue.

-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

Source: MSNBC