Porn on SA’s TV screens: What to do?

The broadcasting authority has given the go-ahead for pornography on South African TV. MICHAEL MAYER explains why this is very bad news and what Catholics can do about it.

Pirated pornographic CDs and DVDs are crushed by a bulldozer outside the cathedral in Manila, Philippines. In August, the high court in Cape Town will hear arguments why pornographic content should not be broadcast in South Africa. (CNS photo/Romeo Ranoco, Reuters)

As Christians we should be appalled at the denigration of our brothers and sisters, and ourselves, through porn.

Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington in the US wrote in a recent pastoral letter: “The very nature of pornography commits violence against the dignity of the human person. By taking an essential aspect of the person — human sexuality — and making it a commodity to be bartered and sold, to be used and discarded by unknown others.”

Porn has now made its entrance onto South African TV screens that can be broadcast into the home.

What is the Catholic Church in South Africa going to do about the destruction of morality through porn?

First a quick history how in one year the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) lost its train of thought on human dignity and violence vis-à-vis porn:

In April 2013 ICASA granted TopTV (now StarSat) the right to air porn from 20:00 to 05:00. Paseka Maleka, ICASA’s spokesperson stated:

• there is no law […] prohibiting the […] distribution of adult content in the republic. Only the production and distribution of child pornography is expressly prohibited;
• The security measures put in place by TopTV [StarSat], including the double pin code as outlined in the application, are in place to safeguard children’s rights;
• the [public consultation] representations made were based on moral grounds; rather than a [sic] research evidence […] linking pornography and gender-based violence.

ICASA had a year earlier, in March 2012, rejected the same application on the following grounds:

• the right of women to equality and human dignity overrides TopTV’s [StarSat’s] right to freedom of expression ;
• [ICASA] regards the consumption of pornography as one contributing factor, among others, to the normalisation of violence against women in South Africa;
• the South African government has already limited citizens’ right to freedom of expression with regard to the consumption of pornography by law, […] ICASA sees no reason to expand access to pornography on the airwaves into the home.

I wrote an article for Mail & Guardian about ICASA’s interpretation of morality and science (find it HERE). The porn issue cannot be reduced to some sort of equation, emptied of what it is to be human.

I contacted a number of organisations, one of which was the Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA), a Christian organisation that works for justice and morality through the courts. JASA have taken up the ICASA-StarSat TV porn issue and have filed papers in the Western Cape High Court in an attempt to stop the porn channels. The case will be heard on August 11, 2014.

The importance of this case cannot be underestimated. If it fails, the door that has been forced slightly open may only need a little nudge before we find ourselves flooded by this and similar destruction.

JASA also plan to take the next step and challenge the porn on the Internet and cellular networks. So a victory in this pending case will make all the difference in that next effort.

Back to the question: What can we do?

I spoke to John Smythe QC of JASA on how the Catholic Church could assist. John requested that the Church come on board as amicus curiae – friend of the court. The value of such an intervention would make a very real difference.

So again what can we do? An important start would be to turn to God in prayer. This must then be closely followed by raising the pending case with our brothers and sisters, including our local clergy: deacons, priests, and bishops.

Porn is not about freedom of expression, nor about rights, nor about choice. Porn is opposed to love, to liberation, to justice, and to mercy. Porn is an attempt to buy into that gift that so unites us to God’s self-giving, generosity, passion, and creativity; whilst emptying the gift of the divine such that the resultant course barrenness is only separation and isolation — figures of hell. Porn clasps the absence of God, which we understand to be Satan.

What will we say to those whose lives are grievously altered through our failing to resist, through welcoming Satan’s madness? What will we say to Jesus, the Son within the Trinity of love and power, when we have completed our journey? What do we say to the Risen Christ now?