Adult TV ‘addiction’ showdown in South Africa
June 6, 2014
By Chris Forrester
A group representing 1,400 South African doctors (‘Doctors for Life’) have hit StarSat with a writ demanding that the pay-TV broadcaster remove two ‘adult’ channels (Playboy TV and Private Spice) from its channel line-up. The application was filed in the High Court at Pretoria, and requests that the ‘pornography’ licence issued to StarSat’s subsidiary ODM be revoked.
ODM/StarSat started transmitting the two contested channels in November last year, with licenses issued by regulator ICASA.
‘Doctors for Life’ has now been joined by other groups including the Justice Alliance of South Africa and others, and the argument centres on whether ICASA acted illegally by not considering the effect of the constitutional rights of children. The ‘Doctors for Life’ argument is that pornography is addictive.
There has, as yet, been no response from either StarSat or ODM.