08 May 08 | Comment, News and features, United Kingdom
Visual artists and even pop stars could face prosecution under new British legislation, writes John Ozimek
Collectors looking to make a fast buck by investing in erotica had a nervous awakening this morning. And fans of Madonna were left wondering whether they would need to mutilate one of her most famous books.
The Criminal Justice Bill, which received royal assent today, includes new laws on ‘extreme pornography’. This makes it illegal to possess images that depict ‘explicit realistic extreme acts’ that are also ‘grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character’. The penalty, if found guilty, is up to three years in prison.
Supporters claim that the target of the bill is very clear. Others are not so sure.
Sex, by Madonna, caused controversy on its publication in 1992. It was shot by respected photographer Steven Meisel. But critics accused it of including hardcore images of sado-masochism and even bestiality. In one photo, Madonna appears threatened by a knife. In another she appears in a sexually suggestive pose with a dog. Sex was banned in Japan.
Up to 100,000 copies may still be owned in the UK. Mint copies of this work are being traded for up to £700 on Amazon.
Confusion reigns. A barrister with expertise in this area argues that at least one of the images in Madonna’s book could pass all three tests set by the new law.
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11 Mar 08 | Comment, United Kingdom
Proponents of a ban on ‘extreme pornography’ are looking increasingly desperate in their attempts to push their plan through Parliament, writes Julian Petley
Faced with a rising tide of opposition in the Lords, the government dropped yet more parts of its Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill on 27 February, including a crackdown on prostitution and a proposal which would have stopped the appeal court quashing convictions on a technicality in cases where there was ‘no reasonable doubt’ about a defendant’s guilt. However, the highly controversial clauses which will make it an offence even to possess certain kinds of ill-defined pornography remain firmly in place, in spite of the grave doubts about them now being raised — albeit belatedly — in Parliament.
For example, in its legislative scrutiny of the bill, the Joint Committee on Human Rights noted that the government had already made it clear that it felt that the seriousness of the proposed offences justified interference with Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which concern, respectively, an individual’s right to private life and their right freely to receive and impart information (including information which is offensive or unpalatable). However, the committee was concerned whether ‘the definition of the new offence is sufficiently precise and foreseeable’ to satisfy the requirement that interferences with these rights are ‘in accordance with the law’. Thus it asked the minister to explain how an individual user of pornography would be able to know whether their possession of a particular image would constitute a criminal offence. In reply, he stated that the government believed that the user of such material would have ‘no difficulty in recognising pornography’ and that extreme images would be “recognisable” or “easily recognisable”. However, the committee remained unhappy about ‘the vagueness of the definition of the offence’, noting that ‘an assessment of whether an image is or is not ‘extreme’ is inherently subjective and may not, in every case, be, as the government suggests, “recognisable” or “easily recognisable”. This means that individuals seeking to regulate their conduct in accordance with the criminal law cannot be certain that they will not be committing a criminal offence by having certain images in their possession.’ They concluded: ‘We look forward to the government bringing forward an amendment to make the scope of the new offence more precise.’
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19 Feb 08 | Digital Freedom, News and features
Finnish blogger Matti Nikki is facing an investigation into whether he aided the distribution of child pornography. The anti-censorship campaigner’s website, on which he published a list of over 1,500 websites that have been blocked by the Finnish authorities, has itself been closed down.
Authorities in Finland have had the right to block foreign sites that contained child pornography since late 2006. However, Nikki’s site is located in Finland, and does not itself contain any pornography. Of the sites he has listed, only two are known to contain images of children.
Read Matti Nikki’s full account here
26 Jun 07 | Digital Freedom, Politics and Society, United Kingdom
While British newspapers were harrumphing about the Australian government banning Aboriginals from accessing pornography, they signally failed to notice that one of the 19 new offences announced in New Labour’s 54th criminal justice bill since it came to power will be the possession of what it calls ‘extreme pornographic images’. Those found guilty risk three years in gaol, or a hefty fine, or both. They will also be put on the Sex Offenders Register, and thus have their lives wrecked.
Anybody who vainly hoped that this measure, which has been looming for the past three years, would slink away and find a quiet place to die in the face of a campaign of sustained and well-informed opposition will be sorely disappointed. (For an account of this campaign see here and here) Indeed, quite the reverse is the case. The measures unveiled in the Criminal Justice Bill are actually even more draconian and ill-conceived than the original proposals. These can only be regarded as a direct smack in the faces of those who had the temerity to object in the first place, and a clear warning that the government intends to intimidate and criminalise not only the entire BDSM (Bondage-Domination-Sadism-Masochism) community but very considerable portions of the DVD/video-owning and website-visiting communities as well.
The bill defines an ‘extreme pornographic image’ as one which both ‘appears to have been produced solely or principally for the purposes of sexual arousal’ (duh!) and ‘which is an image of any of the following –
(a) an act which threatens or appears to threaten a person’s life,
(b) an act which results in or appears to result in (or be likely to result in) serious injury to a person’s anus, breast or genitals,
(c) an act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse,
(d) a person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal,
where (in each case) any such act, person or animal depicted in the image is or appears to be real’.
Now, you don’t have to be a media studies graduate to realise immediately that the key word here is, of course, ‘appears’. This, unequivocally and indubitably, brings within the bill’s ambit both images of consenting BDSM activity and films not classified by the British Board of Film Classification which involve, and not necessarily simultaneously, scenes of unsimulated sexual activity and scenes of simulated violence, necrophilia or bestiality. Thus, for example, collectors of the work of Jess Franco, Joe d’Amato and other Euro sleaze-meisters, all of whose works are readily available from that sink of pornographic depravity, Amazon.com, could soon find themselves locked up for a considerable period of time. This is a crucial point – the government, abetted by sections of the media is currently engaged on a campaign of disinformation aimed at persuading people that this measure should concern only those possessing a very limited range of pornographic images. The truth is very different indeed.
Furthermore, it needs to be stressed that although works classified by the BBFC are exempt from the new prohibition, extracts from BBFC-classified films (even single images) come within its ambit ‘if it appears that the image was extracted (whether with or without other images) solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal’. Desiccated and deathly the prose may be, but yes, you read this right: if you put together a montage of favourite moments from BBFC-certificated films, and if these contain representations of sex and violence, you may well end up having your motives probed in court and, if they don’t pass muster, you’ll be sent to prison.
In terms of BDSM images, the bill is quite clearly yet another malign consequence of the Spanner case (http://www.spannertrust.org/). As a result of this truly shocking affair, people taking part in entirely consensual sado-masochistic activity have had to come to terms with the fact that their consent is not in fact valid at law, a point which the notes attached to this bill is at pains to rub in, stating that ‘the material to be covered by this new offence is at the most extreme end of the spectrum of pornographic material which is likely to be thought abhorrent by most people. It is not possible at law to give consent to the type of activity covered by the offence, so it is therefore likely that a criminal offence is being committed where the activity which appears to be taking place is actually taking place’. And in the case of purely staged activities, ‘the Government believes that banning possession is justified in order to meet the legitimate aim of protecting the individuals involved from participating in degrading activities’. Thus is revealed the mark of the true authoritarian: promoting oppressive legislation on the grounds of protecting people from themselves.
‘Degrading’, ‘abhorrent’ – this is the over-heated language of the moral crusader, not the dispassionate prose of the legislator. But frightening people into behaving ‘properly’ and appeasing the moral authoritarians has always been at the root of this measure. Indeed, the accompanying notes are remarkably upfront about this, stating that ‘the Government considers that the new offence is a proportionate measure with the legitimate aim of breaking the demand and supply cycle of this material which may be harmful to those who view it. Irrespective of how these images were made, banning their possession can be justified as sending a signal that such behaviour is not considered acceptable. Viewing such images voluntarily can desensitise the viewer to such degrading acts, and can reinforce the message that such behaviour is unacceptable’.
However, the vainglorious idea that this measure will break the ‘demand and supply cycle of this material’ shows that the government knows absolutely nothing about the Internet, and still less about the global pornography market. Even if the entire UK population could be completely and instantaneously cut off from the entire supply of Internet porn, it would register barely a blip in the global economics of the industry. To seriously believe that international porn barons give a damn about what the British government does or doesn’t do betrays a quite stupefyingly over-inflated sense of this country’s importance in the scheme of things. Furthermore, the ‘message’ which this measure sends out is not the one which is so portentously intended. Rather, it says that, for all its eulogising of modernisation, New Labour is actually profoundly ignorant of and ill at ease with the modern media, and, as far as attitudes to the Internet are concerned, is quite happy to place itself in the same camp as not simply Australia, but also Saudi Arabia, China and North Korea.
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