Paul Henry. Photo / Frances Oliver

Using the word "retard" is as offensive as a racial slur like "nigger", Special Olympics New Zealand says.

The organisation had asked the Broadcasting Standards Authority to ensure using "the R word" was unacceptable after TV One's Breakfast host Paul Henry last week called Scottish singer Susan Boyle "retarded".

On last Monday's show, Henry laughed while reading from a magazine article about how the Britain's Got Talent singer was starved of oxygen at birth and suffered an intellectual disability.

"Here's the really interesting revelation: she is in fact retarded ...

"And if you look at her carefully, you can make it out," he said.

Special Olympics New Zealand chairman David Rutherford said using "retard" to describe intellectually disabled people was as hurtful as racial slurs like "nigger" and "kike".

Mr Rutherford said Special Olympics New Zealand had requested a review of the application of broadcasting standards to ensure that the use of "retard" was regarded as unacceptable.

"Central to our thinking has been the consideration of people with intellectual disability. Most people with intellectual disability would find it very difficult to defend themselves in the medium of television."

Henry's comments have made it to Hollywood, with celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton directing his Twitter followers to an American news story on the Henry's comments.

Hilton, whose perezhilton.com website received millions of views per day, tweeted: "Susan Boyle in the middle of `retarded controversy", with a link to a story on Irish-American website Irish Central - sharing the story with more than 1.5 million Twitter followers.

Irish Central quoted Henry as saying his comments were made in a light-hearted fashion.

He said he had done nothing wrong and that it was okay to use the word retarded in relation to people with intellectual disabilities.

IHC New Zealand spokeswoman Philippa Sellens said last week Henry's comments were "highly offensive".

"It was in extremely bad taste to use his position as a broadcaster to `entertain' by mocking a sector of the community that has difficulty speaking up for themselves."

IHC had had "a massive response" and was encouraging the public to complain to TVNZ and the Human Rights Commission.

The Human Rights Commission was unable to confirm this afternoon how many complaints had been received.

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said she was unable to comment on the complaints as they were "going through the usual process".

- NZPA

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