Churches back boycott of TopTV over porn channel plans

Major Christian church groups have launched a boycott of TopTV which wants to broadcast three pornographic television channels, says Family Policy Institute Director Errol Naidoo.

Announcing the boycott on Saturday at a march outside Parliament in Cape Town against rape and violence against women and children, Naidoo said the church groups would call on their members to cancel their Top TV subscriptions immediately.

The boycott call includes “TopTV, its advertisers and sponsors” says FPI in a media statement released today.

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“The Christian Church is deeply concerned that the introduction of three 24-hour pornographic channels in South Africa will exacerbate the current crisis of rape and violence against vulnerable women and children,” says the statement.

At a public hearing at the Johannesburg offices of the Independent Communications Authorhity of South Africa (Icasa) last week, On Digital Media, which operates Top TV applied to broadcast the channels Playboy, Desire, and Private Spice between 20:00 and 05:00. Initially ODM applied for three 24 hour channels.

Naidoo told marchers on Saturday that Top TV was still pushing ahead to launch three 24-hour channels. He said he has a picture of a man taking an axe to a Top TV decoder and stated: “that sounds like the way we have to go”.

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“Research overwhelmingly indicates the widespread and easy availability of pornography is harmful to society. Pornography consumption is also linked to marriage and family breakdown, sexual deviant behaviour and sexual addictions that result in social dysfunction,” says the FPI statement.

“We are further concerned that an increasing number of children are being exposed to pornography on the internet and on television. Introducing three 24-hour porn channels in SA will significantly increase the risk of children being exposed to hard-core sexually explicit images. Pornography demeans and degrades women and reinforces the stereotype that women are mere sex objects,” it says.

Church groups listed in support of the boycott are the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, Assemblies of God of South Africa, the Baptist Union of South Africa, the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, the Church of England in South Africa, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Full Gospel Church of South Africa, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, the Association of Vineyard Churches in South Africa, and “thousands of independent churches”.

The FPI statement says: “We do this as part of our wider campaign to protect the dignity of women and children in the nation. FPI will also encourage other faith groups in South Africa to join the national boycott of Top TV and its advertisers.”