TV porn a steamy topic

2002-10-21 08:03

Paris - A drive to take porn off television in France is being met with opposition and scorn from the country's media and surprise from the European Commission.

Conservatives, backed by the head of the broadcasting regulatory authority, are proposing several methods to rid the small screen of X-rated sex films, ranging from an outright ban to a supertax of 95 percent on producers of such shows.

Ninety-six right-wing deputies have signed an anti-porn bill, saying that such a move is necessary to bring France into line with a European directive meant to protect children from harmful television programming.

But the move has provoked an outcry from porn-makers, cable and satellite television operators, some left-wing politicians, and many French media, which claim that the late-night showing of such explicit material - which requires digital decoders and sometimes a credit card to watch - already meet child-protection standards.

To go further would be tantamount to censure, they argue, and would force several cable channels into bankruptcy.

This week, the European Commission hinted it was inclined to agree that the French conservatives were going too far.

In a letter to France's CSA broadcasting regulator the EU Culture and Education Commissioner Viviane Reding said that she believed France was already fulfilling its responsibilities under the Television Without Borders legislation protecting minors.

She said the French parliament was free to come up with tougher measures if it wanted, but noted that the EU directive was intended to implement a more general code of conduct that a crackdown on pornography specifically.

Faced with the hardline being touted by the conservatives, several channels have tried to come up with a compromise.

Canal Plus, the most popular pay-TV service, has put in place a system that requires X-rated shows to be decoded twice over, while a satellite operator, TPS, has said it will drop explicit sex shows if its competitors also do.

The chairwoman of the board of ABsat, part of a group that includes a porn channel by satellite, said she was in favour of making such shows harder to access.

"I'm for very strict blocking, for renewed parental control, but against the censure," Michele Cotta told RMC radio, adding that a total ban would just push such products on to the Internet or video distributors while killing revenue for struggling channels.

The left-leaning Le Monde newspaper also mocked the conservatives' initiative. Sure, pornography has proliferated on French television, and with it an increased brutality in its depiction, it opined.

"But censure is a premature response, simplist and hypocritical to say the least," it said, suggesting that the conservatives'motives might also have something to do with a desire to remove some stations critical of the government and replace them with more cooperative operators.

The government has not said which way it will jump when the bill is presented.

Blandine Kreigel, a philosopher and the chairwoman of a commission appointed to look into violence on television, said the matter was also being weighed and a recommendation would be made in November.- Sapa-AFP

- SAPA