Another laughter: Possessions of obscene articles

Section 21, Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Chapter 391), the Laws of Hong Kong.

Prohibition on publishing obscene articles

(1) Subject to subsection (2) any person who-

• (a) publishes;
• (b) possesses for the purpose of publication; or
• (c) imports for the purpose of publication,

any obscene article, whether or not he knows that it is an obscene article, commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $1000000 and to imprisonment for 3 years.

Emphasis added.

In other words, if there is no intention of publications, merely possessing obscene articles (which I believe many boys do) does not constitute an offence. Though even if you have no such intention, the police can argue that you do.

The man did actually post the photos to the Internet, that's why the police located him and put him into custody. He has a difficult case to argue.

I strongly disagree with anyone who say that downloading the photos is an offence. It's not. My opinion.

Our police chief is naïve in that he was happy to tell the press a scapegoat had been arrested. I wonder whether our police chief would still be happy for that if he was reminded of the terabytes of pornography being shared on a daily basis.

They even contacted the Interpol or other overseas authorities to obtain the posters' Internet Protocol address or have the obscene articles removed (the articles are still pending for classifications). I think foreign authorities and internet websites have no obligation to comply. Frankly, requesting the addresses of the posters and remove the celebrity photos? They must think we are crazy.

I just hear another laughter at us.