The Obscenity Debate

Five years after a call to arms from a federal commission on pornography, the war over obscenity is at full tilt. Justice Department prosecutors are putting heat on pornography purveyors nationwide, and an alliance of religious activists and political conservatives is blasting the work of avant-garde artists, raunchy rap singers and on-the-edge filmmakers. A counterattack has been launched by the sex-film industry as well as a diverse coalition of artists, publishers and librarians who see censorship as a threat to First Amendment rights to free speech. As similar fights in the past have shown, obscenity is a gray legal area that is highly politicized. A national consensus on the issue remains elusive.