Seattle Post-Intelligencer writer Kery Murakami reported today that the Seattle Community Access Network's board voted Wednesday night to enact stricter standards for obscenity in an effort to shut down a late-night sex show that appears on Seattle's public-access cable television station.
The report claimed that in a raucous meeting at the SCAN headquarters, the show's creator and about 30 of his fans said the board's action was censorship.
"If you want freedom of speech to look like the Bible Belt, move to the Bible Belt," Mike Aivaz, creator of the show "Mike Hunt TV," told board members shortly before they voted 7-1 to approve the new policies. After the vote, the report said that he and his supporters chanted "shame."
Murakami wrote that SCAN Executive Director Ann Suter warned Aivaz last year that the show was in danger of being shut down because it met the legal definition of obscenity, which was that it was primarily intended to satisfy prurient interests and that it violated community standards.
A SCAN content review board made up of producers of other public-access shows agreed in February and ordered Aivaz to tone down the programming or face being taken off the air.
The story reported that Aivaz responded to the order by covering body parts on pornography clips with a picture of Suter's face. In May, however, Aivaz returned to showing graphic pornography.
The report said that Suter took no action at the time because SCAN's board was revising its standards.
Murakami wrote that as before, shows can be taken off the air if they are deemed obscene by the network's content review board. Wednesday's vote specified several things that will be considered violations of that standard, including depictions of intercourse and masturbation.
The story claimed that Suter said she will begin enforcing the new rules immediately and said that Aivaz's program will be pulled off the air if he violates the revised policy.
Aivaz's attorney, Gilbert Levy, called the new standard too restrictive, noting that the community accepts sex scenes on cable movies and in adult videos.
The report concluded with Aivaz saying that he likely will challenge the policies in court.
