‘Twas the night before… eh… porn, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse [with my sincerest apologies to Clement Clarke Moore].

It’s been quiet, way too quiet since ailing pay-TV provider StarSat (formerly TopTV) received the go-ahead from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) to broadcast three porn channels from 1 December. And frankly, I was starting to get a bit worried by the lack of mass-hysteria, similar to that which accompanied StarSat’s previous attempt to broadcast porn. Various religious and civic do-gooder groups worked themselves up into a froth over what would become of our society, should the scourge of pornography infiltrate our TV screens.

But we need not fear. Just as we were about to face the horrifying prospect of becoming a bunch of depraved rapists, murderers and other psychopathic deviants, with no regard for human life… Oh, the irony. But I digress.

As I was saying, just as we were about to descend into a society even more vile, another crusader has come to our rescue – this time in the form of the Justice Alliance of SA (JASA), a little-known group of religious types, which is getting its knickers in a twist about StarSat’s smut channels.

Now, I’m not making a case for or against porn – that is a tired argument and beyond the scope of this column. However, this is the 21st century and there are enough controls in place for us not to have to worry about children inadvertently stumbling across potentially harmful content. And yet, this is the basis of JASA’s argument. In court papers filed in the Western Cape High Court, the group contends that “fixing a watershed time of 20:00 flies in the face of common sense, bearing in mind that most teenage children finish their homework at about 20:00 and then watch TV for an hour or two until bedtime”.

“We don’t think they [pornographic programmes] should be broadcast at all, but after 23:00 would be a more reasonable time,” JASA director John Smyth was quoted as saying.

Now, I have several issues with JASA’s well-meaning, but misguided stance.

Firstly, determined teenagers will get their hands on forbidden fruit, regardless of what time of day or night. Secondly, access to the adult offering will be restricted, so if parents do their jobs, for a change, is there any danger?

Thirdly, with the proliferation of, and open access to, adult content on other platforms, such as the Internet, why waste energy to combat this?

While the scourge of real-life violence against women and children remains rampant and nothing is done about it by JASA, or its ilk, derailing StarSat’s porn ambitions would most likely see the collapse of the broadcaster.

In short, this would lead to job-losses, less (or no) competition in the pay-TV sector and a step back into nanny-state mentality. Conversely, the real-life benefits would be… I just don’t see any.

Happy reading!

Martin Czernowalow