Hong Kong, obscenity laws, and Flickr's regional censorship
From Berkman alum and Gloval Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon...
On May 11th, Oiwan Lam (pictured at right protesting media content controls) committed what she says was a deliberate act of civil disobedience.
Writing on the citizen media website InMedia Hong Kong, Oiwan called on her readers to post links to erotic websites and also included an artsy photo of a topless woman that she found on Flickr. The post was originally published here, but has now been removed from the InMedia site and posted on a Wordpress.com blog here. (WARNING: that last link is for people over 18 only and is not work-safe.)
As Boingboing and others reported earlier this week, Oiwan's post has been classified as "Class II indecent" by Hong Kong's Obscene Articles Tribunal. The maximum penalty for this is HK$400,000 (US$ 51,162) and one year in jail. While people here think she is unlikely to end up doing jailtime, she certainly faces a long drawn out court battle and series of appeals, and if she loses will end paying a hefty fine.
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On May 11th, Oiwan Lam (pictured at right protesting media content controls) committed what she says was a deliberate act of civil disobedience.
Writing on the citizen media website InMedia Hong Kong, Oiwan called on her readers to post links to erotic websites and also included an artsy photo of a topless woman that she found on Flickr. The post was originally published here, but has now been removed from the InMedia site and posted on a Wordpress.com blog here. (WARNING: that last link is for people over 18 only and is not work-safe.)
As Boingboing and others reported earlier this week, Oiwan's post has been classified as "Class II indecent" by Hong Kong's Obscene Articles Tribunal. The maximum penalty for this is HK$400,000 (US$ 51,162) and one year in jail. While people here think she is unlikely to end up doing jailtime, she certainly faces a long drawn out court battle and series of appeals, and if she loses will end paying a hefty fine.
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