Southern Voice
                                                September 24, 1993
copied with permission from Southern Voice

          CENSORED LESBIAN FILM LEADS TO POLICY CHANGE AT DEKALB TV

  Decatur - The outcry over a station manager's censoring of a film with
lesbian content at DeKalb's public access cable television station has
resulted in a new policy for reviewing such films before broadcast.

  Ann Landers, a spokesperson for Georgia Cable Television (GCTV), which
funds DeKalb Community Television (DCTV), said that the public access
station would institute a review panel to preview films, taking the
final decision about broadcast out of the hands of a single individual.

  "GCTV doesn't feel it's appropriate for one person to make these
decisions - pro or con - on potentially sensitive material," Landers
said.  "We've decided the best tactic would be to create a board of
community members who can comment prior to cablecast."

  Landers added the panel would be drawn from diverse segments of the
community at large.

  The film in question, "From the Goddess," produced last fall by Donna
Collier at DCTV's studios, was originally approved for broadcast by
then-station manager Nancy Lowe but was removed in May from the
station's broadcast rotation by Tony Briscler, who replaced Lowe in
February.

  "Without even telling me, he took it off the air," said Collier.
"[When I did finally speak with him], he told me the `simulated sex
scene' between two women was not acceptable, and that he had gotten on
complaint."

  Collier said the film had been aired "a couple of times a month" since
its approval, and that she found it remarkable that "as many times as it
aired, he got only one complaint."

  "[Briscler] decides what's right and what's wrong, what's offensive
and what's not," she said.  "But his saying ["From the Goddess"] is
offensive is offensive to me."

  According to Collier, the film's one time use of the word "fuck" and a
scene at the end with the two lesbian characters in bed cause the
problem.

  "It ends with the two women in bed, clothed," she said.  "They kiss
and are in an intimate embrace.  My sister told me that the `sex scene'
was boring."

  Doug Loggins, who was in charge of scheduling at DCTV at the time,
said that Briscler told him to pull the program from the air.

  "He said it has these words and adult situations," said Loggins, who
said the incident, and another in which Briscler refused to allow a
belly dancer to appear, prompted him to quit his position.  "He said he
was going by FCC (Federal Communication Commission) guidelines, but
those guidelines are very subjective."

  FCC guidelines prohibit the airing of material that violates
"community standards" but do not define those standards.  Most broadcast
stations air programs of potentially controversial material late at
night to avoid problems with complaints.

  Briscler would not speak with Southern Voice on the record about the
incident, referring a phone call to GCTV.  GCTV's Landers said that DCTV
management told her they had gotten "one or two" complaints about an
early evening airing of the film.

  "One or two complaints does not make community outrage," she said.
"And then you have to consider who the outrage is coming from.  These
decisions [about airing programs] just can't be made in a vacuum."

  Collier's film, Landers said, will go before the review panel when it
is in place.

                                                K.C. Wildmoon