Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Sri Lanka newspapers refuse to take part in porn crackdown



Agence France-Presse
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Newspaper editors in Sri Lanka on Tuesday refused to publish pictures of men and women who are wanted by police for appearing on porn websites in the country.

Under a crackdown on pornography on the Indian Ocean island, police are trying to trace local men and women pictured in compromising poses and had asked newspapers to reproduce mugshots of 83 of them.


"We were given the photos with a request to publish them, but we decided not to," said Siri Ranasinghe, chief editor of the mass circulating Sinhalese daily, the Lankadeepa.

"It is a question of privacy. We don't know who these people are and under what circumstances the police got these pictures. Technology can be used to manipulate pictures, so we decided to leave them out."

The police won court permission last week to release the images and seek public help to identify and question those pictured over possible violations of obscenity laws.

The men and women face up to six months jail or a fine of 10,000 rupees (90 dollars), or both if convicted of violating obscenity laws, police say.

All national dailies refused to print the photographs except for the Lakbima Sinhalese newspaper, which published the mugshots at the bottom of page two, without any reference to the allegations against them.

Authorities say the wanted individuals were found portrayed on 180 Sri Lankan pornographic websites that have since been blocked by telecommunications regulators.

Other porn sites featuring non-Sri Lankans remain available, however.

The government of President Mahinda Rajapakse has also ordered the removal of bill boards featuring scantily-clad women and launched a campaign to discourage the use of alcohol and tobacco in conservative Sri Lanka.

The crackdown was launched in July last year when a court ordered the blocking of a dozen porn sites, including an international porn video sharing site, for allegedly featuring Sri Lankan men and women.

© AFP

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