By Solomon Lubambula. In a bid to address the increasing cases of immorality and criminal acts in our society, President Yoweri Museveni has assented to yet another controversial bill. The state minister for ethics and integrity Rev. The Anti-Pornography Act creates the offence of pornography which is blamed for sexual crimes against women and children including rape, child molestation and incest. The law criminalizes watching and promoting pornography with a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail or paying currency points equivalents to 10 million shillings or both. According to the law even those who wear miniskirts or expose their sexual body parts like thighs and buttocks that may cause sexual excitement will face charges. The seeming happy Lokodo lashed out at foreign governments who have continued to threaten Uganda upon signing such laws to back off since Uganda is an independent and sovereign nation. The Act defines pornography as any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual excitement. During the process of making the law, the Committee observed that despite the existence of various legislations prohibiting pornography in Uganda, there is no single law to comprehensively deal with the problem. The Anti-Pornography Bill, sets up the Pornography Control Committee, responsible for the implementation of the law and for taking necessary measures to ensure early detection and prohibition of pornography.
Presented by the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies
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So what do these laws actually do? They make no distinction between sex work and sex trafficking. Sex work is consensual work. Trafficking is the forced or coerced sexual servitude of a person by another. Now that the law sees consensual sex and sexual slavery as synonymous, no third-party platform company wants to be responsible for any illegal content that is transferred or advertised. Even sex educators and erotica writers are finding their posts removed from Facebook and Instagram. This is a loss of information and art. Rob Portman , the Republican Senator from Ohio stated without evidence that all trafficking was sourced to Backpage.
The Anti Porn Laws That Are Killing People
Obscenity refers to a narrow category of pornography that violates contemporary community standards and has no serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. For adults at least, most pornography receives constitutional protection. Miller v.
By Olivia Rondonuwu. Balinese dancers perform during the opening of a carnival on Indonesia's resort island of Bali February 19, There was one dissenting opinion from the panel of eight judges. Those who will be directly affected by this law are women and children. The anti-pornography bill was promoted by a small group of Islamic and Islamist parties, and passed by parliament in October , just a few months before nationwide elections. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who won a second, five-year term, then formed a coalition with several religious parties who wield considerable influence in the cabinet. While most are moderate, an increasingly vocal minority has pushed for wider implementation of sharia law in the most populous Muslim country. Offenders face up to 15 years imprisonment. The law was widely criticized.
