| Abstract [eng] |
Control of Sexual Expression in Lithuanian Television: Analysis of Institutions, Practices and Discourse The aim of this paper is to analyse the control of the sexual expression in Lithuanian television. The starting point for such research was the proposal for The Audiovisual Media Services Directive prepared by the European Commission in 2016. According to Article 12 (2) of the Directive the ‘pornography would be applied by the strictest control (including television) such as effective parental control and encryption’. Lithuania’s position for this Directive’s proposal statement about pornography control was unambiguously strict. Lithuania disapproved with such statement as its recognition would imply that pornography can be tolerated and it does not necessarily have a negative impact on society. It raises the discussion about the control of sexual expression and its discourse in two different power mechanisms – local and the EU. In order to grasp the power operation principles in Lithuania which determine the motives of strict opinion about the Directive’s proposal as well as to understand local power concept in relation to the the EU power concept, the following question has been raised: what is the dynamics of the controlling discourse of sexual expression in the case of The Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania (RTCL) during 2003 – 2016? To answer this question three main goals have been formulated: 1.To examine how the legal environment changed over time in order to control sexual expression; 2.To analyse the changes of the sexual expression elements observed by the Controller (RTCL), linking them with the changes in the legal environment; 3.To analyse the changes in the evaluation made by the RTCL decisions (e.g. the sexual expression observed by the RTCL broke the law). Guided by the Michel Foucault’s theory of power mechanism, this research showed that in terms of the control of sexual expression discourse three types of power relation are dominating in Lithuania: the negative relation, the insistence of the rule and the uniformity of the apparatus. These power relation models with their inherent practices constructed the legal environment, continuously becoming stricter towards sexual expression. From 2010 this power mechanics initiated even stricter controlling mechanism for sexual expression by highlighting the protection of minors. As an institutional tool, the RTCL adopted the same power dictated manner as the legal environment. Between 2010 and 2012 the Controller started to observe more sexual expression behaviour elements and from 2011 the RTCL evaluation about observed sexual expression on television became stickier. Guided by Foucault’s ideas about power, the tendency of stringency in the control discourse of sexual expression from 2010 mean that power becomes homogeneous. It means that in this case from 2010, power is working in one direction of protecting children, while until that time as this research indicates power mechanics had some gaps to stabilize its instrumentality to work in one direction. For example, until 2010 institutional changes in assessing sexual expression were made in Lithuania. Therefore, knowing that in Lithuania power uses three types of relation models in order to control discourse of sexual expression some observations about Lithuania’s local power in relation to the EU one could be done. In the EU power mechanism where the local power mechanisms of different countries are combining and where some of power relation can be even positive towards sexual expression Lithuania will always try to save its power’s homogeneity. It means that by using three power relation models: the negative relation, the insistence of the rule and the uniformity of the apparatus – Lithuania will be trying to correct any kind of proposal or question related with sexual expression behaviour and influence the EU power mechanism to its own side to apply strict control for such expression. |
