Free-speech advocates decry group's campaign against hotel porn
By The Associated Press
08.05.02
MASON, Ohio — Warned by the Warren County prosecutor that obscenity charges could be brought against them, a hotel's operators have stopped offering guests pay-for-view adult movies.
Buoyed by that victory, leaders of the anti-pornography group that fought to remove the adult entertainment from the Cincinnati Marriott Northeast said they will target other area hotels, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Aug. 3.
Citizens for Community Values, based in suburban Sharonville, plans to continue videotaping in-room adult movies and forwarding the tapes to prosecutors, hoping to pressure hotels into eliminating such programming.
But free-speech advocates said the campaign violates the First Amendment and would eliminate an entertainment option widely available in hotels nationwide.
Scott Greenwood, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, called the group "fundamentalist, right-wing wackos ... trying to apply the lowest, most restrictive standards to something that is broadcast around the world."
"It's appalling. It's clearly a pressure tactic, and it's anti-First Amendment and anti-personal autonomy," he said.
Phil Burress, the anti-pornography group's president, said his organization has thousands of supporters in the area and is simply helping prosecutors ensure obscenity laws are enforced.
"We're not a police organization, we're an education organization," he said.
Some hotels may welcome the group's effort, he said, because "they don't want to be identified as pornographers."
Warren County Prosecutor Tim Oliver told the Marriott Northeast in suburban Mason that its satellite TV adult programming — which he described as "quite explicit" — violated Ohio obscenity law and officials could face charges if the service continued.
In a July 24 letter to Oliver's office, hotel lawyer William O'Brien said the hotel had removed the adult movie option for guests but "reserved the right to change its position." If that happened, the company would notify the prosecutor's office, he said.
While the 302-room hotel is "committed to traditional family values," O'Brien said, it also is a business serving a public with widely varying tastes and opinions.
Burress refused to say which other hotels his group is targeting. He said four out of 10 U.S. hotels offer adult pay-per-view movies.
The group is increasing efforts to wipe out "white-collar pornography" because hotels are beginning to show more graphic adult movies, he said.
Children in the rooms "are only two or three clicks on a remote control from getting into it," he said, even though guests usually can ask the hotel to block adult fare.