In David Dalton's interview with Cecilia Hofmann, head of the Coalition Against the Trafficking of Women in the Philippines (South China Morning Post, March 21), she stressed that prostitutes are victims of sex-hungry, exploitative men.
Almost every other day, the Post publishes reports from China, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, of women 'forced into prostitution', being promised legitimate jobs somewhere only to end up in brothels, their passports confiscated, getting locked up, drugged and raped.
Given that they are indeed victims, why further degrade them by publishing a blow-up photo of them? Most readers will just see call-girls and snigger when they chance upon such a photograph.
The cynics may claim that surely, those could only be incorrigible women of ill-repute. But prostitutes or no prostitutes, should they decide to go straight later on, that published picture can haunt them for life.
The Post published huge photos of Russian prostitutes some time ago and recently, a picture of a mainland Chinese woman apparently stalking the streets for clients.
While its reports mentioned that these women were drawn to the flesh trade due to poverty, it did not display the same consideration shown to their customers, one of whose faces was blurred in a story about Russian hostesses, published on May 18, 1996.
Perhaps the women would not mind having their faces appear in newspapers, so hardened are they by their circumstances.