Blogging for Backlash
Parliament returns today, so I'm taking part in Blog for Backlash to say clearly and publicly that I oppose the Home Office proposals on 'extreme' pornography.
As a former journalist and a feminist, I oppose censorship.
As someone with a history of political campaigning, I support human rights and am aghast that our government is proposing to introduce laws that would be the most draconian in Europe (may even break European laws if you listen to advice from the eminent human rights lawyer, Rabinder Singh QC). And this from the government whose more forward-thinking legislation has included the Human Rights Act and the Freedom of Information Act!
I oppose the proposals' suggestion that Britons who view pornography may be put on the sex offenders' list when they have not committed a sexual offence against another person, and this when the way rape is dealt with by courts and the police is still so shambolic. I cannot support the idea that British citizens might find themselves stigmatised, unable to find work and with a prison record (up to three years behind bars is what the proposals suggest) just because they looked at porn, or read pornographic writing that fell within the definitions of these proposals.
Definitions in the proposals are woolly at best, dangerous at worst. As a martial artist, that concerns me too. Who's to say who might find video footage of our realistic training fights (we use period manuals to train from, so the fights are using real techniques that could kill or seriously wound) a turn-on? Human nature is nothing if not surprising at times.
We already have laws that cover some claims in the proposals about safeguarding children and we do have laws on *real* violence in pornography. These proposals target ordinary people, not those involved in producing pornography. If they became law, they would give powers to police and state that I for one don't want to see.
If you feel the same, write your own Blog for Backlash. See http://bloggingforbacklash.blogspot.com/ to add your name to the list.
As a former journalist and a feminist, I oppose censorship.
As someone with a history of political campaigning, I support human rights and am aghast that our government is proposing to introduce laws that would be the most draconian in Europe (may even break European laws if you listen to advice from the eminent human rights lawyer, Rabinder Singh QC). And this from the government whose more forward-thinking legislation has included the Human Rights Act and the Freedom of Information Act!
I oppose the proposals' suggestion that Britons who view pornography may be put on the sex offenders' list when they have not committed a sexual offence against another person, and this when the way rape is dealt with by courts and the police is still so shambolic. I cannot support the idea that British citizens might find themselves stigmatised, unable to find work and with a prison record (up to three years behind bars is what the proposals suggest) just because they looked at porn, or read pornographic writing that fell within the definitions of these proposals.
Definitions in the proposals are woolly at best, dangerous at worst. As a martial artist, that concerns me too. Who's to say who might find video footage of our realistic training fights (we use period manuals to train from, so the fights are using real techniques that could kill or seriously wound) a turn-on? Human nature is nothing if not surprising at times.
We already have laws that cover some claims in the proposals about safeguarding children and we do have laws on *real* violence in pornography. These proposals target ordinary people, not those involved in producing pornography. If they became law, they would give powers to police and state that I for one don't want to see.
If you feel the same, write your own Blog for Backlash. See http://bloggingforbacklash.blogspot.com/ to add your name to the list.