Magazine denied obscenity appeal over photos of 'kidnapped actress'
A magazine that published semi-nude photographs of an apparently kidnapped actress has failed in its attempt to appeal against the classification of that issue as obscene.
The Court of Final Appeal yesterday refused to allow Three Weekly to take its complaints about the Obscene Articles Tribunal's classification of the photos any further.
The ruling means the magazine will have to appear before the tribunal again for sentencing over printing the pictures, which appeared in its November 2, 2003, edition.
The law provides for a fine of up to HK$1 million or three years' imprisonment for publishing obscene material.
The photos, which had earlier appeared in Eastweek magazine, were believed to be of Carina Lau Ka-ling and allegedly taken when she was abducted by gangsters 15 years ago. The tribunal deemed the article obscene and not suitable to be published by 'any person'.
The Court of Appeal ruled on May 31 last year that the tribunal had acted properly in classifying the photographs as obscene and upheld a previous ruling against the now-defunct Chinese-language magazine.
Gerard McCoy SC, for Three Weekly, told the court that the Court of Appeal had left the law up in the air by suggesting that the origin and context of an item, and whether the subject's privacy was infringed, should be taken into account when considering whether it was obscene.
He said it was a slippery slope leading towards censorship to grant 'a small tribunal such an enormous power' to decide if something should never see the light of day.
He added that if the tribunal did take into account if a subject's privacy had been infringed, it should only do so if it could be proven on the balance of probability.
The court said it had not been persuaded and dismissed the application. It ordered the magazine to pay the costs of the tribunal.
