People can be photographed and/or videotaped surreptitiously by hidden cameras. As of now it is not clear whether the relevant authorities were aware of these distinctions. It appears that they’ve acted carelessly and possibly even illegally, violating laws pertaining to privacy.
by Malinda Seneviratne
(November 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) On a order obtained by police, certain publications publicized some photographs of women who are supposed to have acted and/or act in pornographic films. The authorities/police apparently wants the support of the public to trace these persons. I am told that some of these women have informed the police that they are not guilty of undressing or engaging in any sexual acts for commercial purposes. The onus then is on the relevant authorities to prove that the said persons violated the law in some way.
There is nothing illegal in lovers taking nude pictures of one another and a person who has been ‘caught’ nude or in sexually compromising positions without his/her knowledge is certainly innocent of such ‘crimes’. A forsaken lover can exact revenge from the person who spurned him/her by making public photographs or video footage taken during a time when things were rosy between the two.
People can be photographed and/or videotaped surreptitiously by hidden cameras. As of now it is not clear whether the relevant authorities were aware of these distinctions. It appears that they’ve acted carelessly and possibly even illegally, violating laws pertaining to privacy.
Surprised
I was surprised to see that there were only pictures of females. ‘Lesbian pornography?’ I wondered. This implies many things. For instance, it implies that the customers (someone has to purchase the material) are not turned on by watching heterosexual encounters. So either they are lesbians themselves or get a kick seeing woman-on-woman scenes. I would have thought a society is made of all kinds of people with all kinds of taste.
Are the authorities telling us that there are no male porn ‘stars’ in Sri Lanka? Are they claiming that the pictures were taken by the porn stars themselves, that there weren’t any others involved in the production process? Who produced the ‘films’? Who paid the so-called porn stars? Who paid the photographer, the cameraman, the rent for the location, the editor, the person who uploaded the stuff on the internet? Who passed it around via mobile phones etc? Are the authorities going to publish their names, publicize their mug shots and bring them to book?
I remember also Ranbanda Seneviratne’s timeless lyrics, ‘Landune, landune’ where he lays bare society’s hypocrisy when it comes to prostitution and prostitutes and especially the slanted nature of invective and approbation, totally against woman and not the user, the man. There was this telling line: piriminge paapa kayata dosa vindina landune.... (girl, who is charged and found guilt of sins perpetrated by men) and lema pamanak lovata penena, laya nopenena landune (girl, whose breasts are seen by a world that cannot see her heart). This speaks only to one aspect of the matter, though.
When I saw those pictures of young girls displayed as though they were murders or terrorists the thoughts that came to mind was ‘lack of taste’ and ‘uncivilized’. It occurred to me that the police and other relevant authorities, following the logic apparent in this move and in order to show fidelity to the concept of consistency, ought to have publicized the pictures and if possible names, aliases, addresses, hang-out places, professions of all suspected crooks including pickpockets, petty thieves, robbers, embezzlers, pyramid-scheme operators, tax-evaders, thugs, ballot-box lifters, rapists, sexual harassers etc etc.
Compensation
Why single out these women and what kind of compensation are the authorities ready to pay them in the event that it cannot be proven that they were engaged in any wrong doing?
I am amazed. This is not the moral police we are talking about here. We are talking about a moronic police that is totally out of order and out of depth. This is not about culture and civilization but about refusing to see the wood for the trees, of being self-righteous and arrogant, of adding fuel to fire and so on.
There is unpardonable voyeurism on the part of the ‘relevant’ authorities here. These girls have been raped by the authorities. If any of these girls find it impossible to live with the shame and does something unfortunate, the nutcase who came up with this ridiculous idea would have to answer.
There’s a porn-star out there putting up posters of some innocent women he’s raped and wants society to rape. I want his/her mug shot publicized. Now.
Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer who can be reached at malinsene@gmail.com
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