查看完整版本: Tela challenges ruling on sex photos

Tela challenges ruling on sex photos

The publication of detailed descriptions of celebrities engaged in sex acts combined with photographs, despite the fact parts of the pictures were blacked out, constituted indecency, the media watchdog told the Obscene Articles Tribunal yesterday.

The Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (Tela) is seeking to overturn the tribunal's "neither indecent nor obscene" ruling in relation to the 40 pictures published in February in Oriental Sunday magazine, and 94 photos published in Next magazine the same month.

Tela said the text and photos should be taken together as a whole in any consideration of whether the material published was indecent.

Senior government prosecutor Vinci Lam Wing-sai, for Tela, said despite the censoring of areas of the photographs of each individual in the published photographs, the descriptions and sexually expressive texts clearly projected sexual fantasy to readers.

Ms Lam also argued it was "unnecessary and excessive" for Oriental Sunday to carry such a large number of censored photos of stars engaged in sex acts in an article that was ostensibly about their tangled relationships. She submitted to the court that Next Magazine had used "pornographic, sexually arousing texts and chronologically successive pictures" to evoke sexual fantasy and voyeurism.

The texts also presented the concept of having multiple sex partners, a concept which was repulsive to reasonable readers.

The tribunal made an interim ruling classifying the photos showing singer-actor Edison Chen Koon-hei in sexual acts with a string of female stars as Class I category - neither indecent nor obscene.

No representative of Next Magazine attended the open hearing yesterday.

An Oriental Sunday representative submitted a three-paragraph written submission to the court from the magazine's editor-in-chief.

It stated that the sensitive areas of the celebrities in photos were "largely" blanked out on the cover and in a feature article in its February 12 issue.

"The degree of exposure was far lower than average women in swimsuits, and if a reasonable person accepts a beach is a venue for all ages, then they should also accept this reporting," the submission stated.

The submission also said that moral standards varied among individuals and changed with times.

"Based on the public reaction at that specific time, that reporting approach was generally accepted," the submission stated. The captions and contents were "subjective and truthful descriptions of fact in principle, worded properly without exaggeration. The headline was neutral and did not try to instil any notions".

Oriental Sunday also submitted that the tribunal's ruling criteria were unclear and difficult to follow.

"The tribunal has no legal power to issue a step-by-step guideline. And if we do, that's undermining the freedom of press," Magistrate Selwyn Hason Au See-hin replied.

A decision on the review applications is expected on May 2.