Backlash tells Academic Conference new UK Porn Law will Criminalise Millions
- for No Benefit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 15 March 2007
University of Durham
Backlash will argue that these knee-jerk proposals - included in the
upcoming Criminal Justice Bill - will distract from the real issues of
domestic and sexual violence by criminalising otherwise law-abiding people
for looking at images where no abuse has taken place.
Spokesperson Deborah Hyde will say the group condemns acts of violence and abuse
but will tell delegates at a conference at the University of Durham that these
plans will do nothing to address the problems it hopes to resolve.
Backlash condemns acts of violence and abuse, including sexual assaults and
rape.
Backlash agrees that pornography which features real life rape and abuse, or in
which participants are coerced is abhorrent and that such acts should be and are
illegal.
However, the vast majority of the material which will be covered by the new
legislation does not involve any abuse of participants. It features consenting
adults.
Some images may only appear to show acts of violence, some material is created
using actors. Other material may be a record of consensual activities between
private citizens. It is worth noting that so far no genuine example of a snuff
film has yet been uncovered.
The proposal is particularly asinine at a time of excessive prison overcrowding
when judges are under pressure to give lighter, non-custodial, sentences to
violent offenders.
The Home Office admits there is no evidence linking pornography to violent
crime. Nonetheless it has continued to pursue this policy, prompting Clive
Walker, Professor of Criminal Justice at University of Leeds to argue "a
decision to criminalise possession of extreme violent pornography is based
solely on moral and political grounds rather than on public safety."
More worryingly, leading Human Rights lawyer Rabinder Singh QC said people
"will not know whether he or she is committing a criminal act by viewing
particular material.
With surveys suggesting between 10-50 percent of the UK population look at
pornography and have experimented with so-called kinky sex, this means many
innocent lives could be ruined.
ENDS
For further information, go to www.backlash-uk.org.uk.
If you would like to interview anyone from backlash or need further information,
call Nick in the press office on 07762 566976
Notes for editors At today's debate entitled "Positions on the Politics
of Porn" Backlash will condemn Home Office proposals to appear in the
upcoming Criminal Justice bill that will make the mere possession of extreme
adult pornography a criminal offence punishable by up to 3 years in prison. The
conference has been convened by Professor Clare McGlynn.
Backlash is an umbrella organization comprising groups such as Feminists Against
Censorship, Unfettered, Ofwatch, The Spanner Trust, The Libertarian Alliance,
The Campaign against Censorship, The Sexual Freedom Coalition, The Society for
Individual Freedom, in attempt to collate evidence for an informed debate on
censorship of pornography, which it believes the government has avoided up until
now.
Shooting the Messenger
The internet is a convenient scapegoat for society's ills.
The UK government is to legislate how best to imprison potentially many people for viewing content on the internet.
How should governments regulate the details of our personal lives and control individual expression ?
Preserve Individual Freedoms
"If we restrict liberty to attain security we will lose them both" Benjamin Franklin.
Backlash campaigns to ensure the right remedies are applied to the right problems.
Whilst doing so we preserve hard won individual rights and liberties.