BATON ROUGE, June 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill proposed by Louisiana State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, that would ban public entities from purchasing or selling pornographic materials met a roadblock when Lafayette Sen. Mike Michot attached an amendment asking that the city of Lafayette Utility System’s (LUS) cable TV, the state’s only publicly owned cable television system, be exempt from the legislation.
The bill, HB142, was approved by both the House and Senate. However, the House rejected Senator Michot’s amendment, which caused the bill to be sent to a conference committee. The committee is composed of three senators and three representatives appointed to iron out differences between House and Senate versions of legislation, and will seek to work out a compromise.
Sen. Michot said his intention in adding the amendment was to keep LUS competitive with private cable companies who provide sexually explicit programming, although he says he disapproves of pornography and believes it should be banned from all cable TV systems.
Michot said establishing the LUS cable system was “a hard-fought battle” with cable providers and that the agreement that it could offer the same type of programming was “hashed out in the Fair Competition Act,” according to a News Star report.
Sen. Michot said that if the state is going to ban sexually explicit broadcasting on the Lafayette Utility System’s cable programming, it should be banned statewide. Outlawing the showing of sexually explicit programs would “show that Louisiana has family values, Christian values and is anti-pornography,” Sen. Michot said.
LUS Director Terry Huval told the Lafayette Daily Advertiser that he would gladly abide by a statewide ban on porn broadcasting.
“If the state wants to pass something like this, it ought to apply to everybody who provides these services, and if it does, we’re fine with it,” Huval said. “We carry that programming because our competitor carries it. It’s already in our community. If our competitor doesn’t carry it, we have no need to carry it.”
However, Rep. Jones said that a statewide ban on porn broadcasting would run afoul of federal freedom of speech laws.
Banning any sexually explicit material on cable TV “won’t last five minutes in a federal court,” Jones said. “Lafayette interjected itself into something that doesn’t affect them and they don’t know how to get out,” he continued, adding that if a suitable compromise isn’t reached by the conference committee, “I could just let the bill die.”