In response to the Oct. 20 airing of a second pornographic segment aired by John Muir College senior Steve York, the A.S. Council has approved an amendment to the Student-Run Television charter that blocking pornographic images from being aired on SRTV at all times.
The amendment was first proposed by A.S. Commissioner of Student Services Maurice Junious on Oct. 5, but the council effectively rejected the provision. However, in light of alleged threats from campus administrators regarding the future of SRTV, the council decided to reconsider its options with how it treats its media service, according to A.S. President Christopher Sweeten. In an Oct. 23 emergency council meeting, the A.S. Council approved the amendment, which bans “graphic depiction of sexual activity involving nudity” at any time, in a 12-5-0 vote.
“I had to stop the administration from physically shutting down SRTV,” Sweeten said at the Oct. 23 meeting. “There is no doubt that A.S. needs to intervene in this matter.”
York became a subject of controversy last spring after a segment of his Koala TV show depicted him engaging in sexual activities with an unidentified woman. According to York’s Web site, this latest video was made to determine if “freedom of speech and expression still exist at UCSD.”
However, it was not the content of York’s videos, but legal questions regarding its online broadcast that compelled A.S. Vice President Internal Angela Fornero to call the emergency council meeting. According to Sweeten, the simultaneous broadcast of the program on the SRTV Web site without a disclaimer of the sexual content was “a breach of federal law that could put [A.S.] in legal jeopardy.”
SRTV was aware that York was going to air another video, but had been assured by York that the Web broadcast would be turned off during the program, according to Station Co-manager Andy Tess. Tess could not explain why the content was allowed to air online.
Throughout the nearly four-hour emergency meeting, councilmembers debated several issues, including possible prevention of future sexually indecent broadcasts from airing and the re-evaluation of the SRTV station manager’s role.
“Managers should have the power and responsibility over the actions of their own station,” Thurgood Marshall Senior Senator Kate Pillon said.
Some solutions proposed at the meeting included firing the station’s management, freezing SRTV funds, temporarily discontinuing Internet broadcasts, and introducing legislation to ban “Koala TV” from airing. Only two items were ultimately proposed for action at the meeting, and the charter revision that prevented nudity was the sole motion to pass, in a 12-5-0 vote. Councilmembers were highly concerned about whether or not they had the legal right to regulate the station’s content.
“We were informed that it might be illegal to add the amendment [banning nudity],” Eleanor Roosevelt College Senior Senator Ashton Iranfar stated.
Other councilmembers felt confident in regulating SRTV content, since the council had already consulted the campus attorney on the legal ramifications of imposing the amendment.
“The only real lawyers that have looked at this have told us that adding [the amendment] is acceptable,” Pillon said.
The motivation behind the amendment itself was called into question at the Oct. 26 council meeting, where several senators and members of the public spoke of the dangers of “administrative pressure” influencing council decisions.
“If you support the banning porn on SRTV due to principle, then I encourage you to vote to support [the amendment],” A.S. Vice President of Academic Affairs Harry Khanna said. “If you voted for it because you are afraid the administration is going to padlock the doors, then I urge you to reconsider.”
However, several councilmembers rejected the notion that pressure was driving their decisions at the Oct. 23 meeting.
“I would hope that we would never bend down to administrative pressure,” Pillon said.
For others, the content of broadcast material was not the primary concern of the matter.
“You can’t win here,” said York, addressing councilmembers at the Oct. 26 meeting. “The main point I am making is that students need control of their own government. If you don’t step in, the administration will step in for you.”
Some councilmembers at the most recent session, however, did not see the debate as a fight for free speech, but instead as a battle of parliamentary politics.
“This is not an issue of free speech,” John Muir College Council Chair Neil Spears said. “This is an issue of A.S. members imposing their own personal beliefs on the public and that is not acceptable by any means.”
The council successfully passed a motion to reconsider the amendment on Oct. 26, but it was again voted through by an 14-8-2 vote. There was a discrepancy regarding whether or not a majority or a two-thirds majority vote was necessary to amend the charter, but Fornero ruled that a majority vote was A.S. precedent and therefore was sufficient for the motion to pass. According to Tess, a disclaimer has since been added to the SRTV Web site warning of the possibility of pornographic images being broadcast. The council postponed until next week a seperate resolution, which would forbid the station from airing all live programs and demanding that the station’s legal counsel meet with the student government and university lawyers.