The Editor, Sir:

While I fully support the ban on daggerin' songs in relation to radio (certainly for terrestrial but not satellite) and free-to-air TV, I do not agree that it should apply to cable.

Cable is a subscription service, with viewing packages selected and purchased based on individual tastes.

To remove items from the viewing menu arbitrarily is in effect dictating what people should and should not buy. This, in my view, is high-handed and not compatible with the best standards of democracy.

Different taste

The fact of the matter is, different people have different tastes.

Some like Readers Digest, some Daily Bread, others the Watchtower and still others like Hustler.

Some like to watch CNN others TBN; others want to watch the dancehall channel or Playboy TV. The state should not by legislation grant TBN legal superiority over the dancehall channel or to the Daily Bread over Playboy magazine.

There should be equal choices in the market place.

I am, however, not oblivious to the content that may be unsuitable for minors. But there are controls available to:

a) Block channels totally.

b) Block programmes by rating.

c) Block viewing by time.

It could be mandated as a part of the granting of licences,that cable companies rate every programme and make the tools mentioned earlier available to their subscribers.

This would provide a safeguard for those who find certain material offensive. This seems a more rational approach and one that would be more consistent with democratic principles.

I hope the cable executives will have the guts to file a class action lawsuit in defence of freedom of expression if the current course is maintained.

The present approach seems basically to be about the Broadcasting Commission, Esther Tyson and Betty Ann Blaine et al, setting themselves up as some 'moral high council' defining good tastes for everyone else.

This is analogous to the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution in Iran.

I am, etc.,

OLIVER HUNTER

oliverhuntersurveys@yahoo.com

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