Playboy 'has played' Icasa

13 Aug 2014

Playboy allegedly duped the Independent Communications Authority of SA into granting pay TV station StarSat a licence to broadcast porn movies by saying it would only depict "sex between couples in loving relationships and sexually empowered women", and would not show movies with young girls or violence.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Instead, the prime time content promoted foursomes, infidelity, unsafe sex and women having extramarital affairs, advocate Darryl Cooke told the Cape Town High Court earlier this week.

Cooke is representing the Justice Alliance of SA in its bid to have StarSat's licence revoked.

The alliance has taken the authority and On Digital Media, operating as StarSat, to court to block the airing of porn.

Cooke said Playboy, which supplies pornographic material to StarSat, also misled Icasa by not revealing that it had been fined three times in six years in the UK for exposing children to porn.

Exposure to porn at a young age leads to sexual disorder

"Icasa acted in an illusion. It relied on what it was told by the broadcaster. On Icasa's version, it admits it was misled and does not deny it didn't research Playboy."

Icasa granted Top TV the licence to air Playboy TV, Desire TV and Private Spice in April last year.

The struggling pay-TV operator changed its name to StarSat last year.

Playboy and Private Spice are already available but the station has been coy about what sort of response the channels have had.

To bolster its case, the alliance handed in an affidavit from a mother and her 23-year-old son, who was exposed to porn by his father at a young age and ended up in hospital with a sexual disorder.

It slammed the decision to allow the airing of porn at 8pm as "absurd because teenage children settle down to watch TV at that time after doing their homework".

The alliance said Icasa "erred in law in failing to find that the constitutional rights of children should have trumped the rights of freedom of expression".

The matter is set down for three days.

Source: The Times, via I-Net Bridge

Latest:

Meanwhile, reports Times Live, Icasa's lawyer yesterday told the court that the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) "did not find anything in law to stop it from authorising the broadcast of adult pornography on pay channels."

He is reported to have said: "Icasa was also entitled to take into account the fact that we have legislation here which deals with inappropriate, unacceptable, unlawful, impermissible forms of pornography."

Read the full report: Porn channels not illegal: Icasa.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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