BY INGE HINNEMO
The Swedish government is proposing to parliament that
pornographic material depicting sex with children - both
printed material and videograms - be excluded from the
constitutional law on freedom of the press. A parliamentary
committee has already proposed to make illegal the
possession of any such material that does not have an
"accountable publisher." Printed materials with an
"accountable publisher" are covered under the constitutional
law on freedom of the press, and only the publisher can
currently be prosecuted for the content.
The government proposal means that possession of all material characterized as child pornography will be illegal. It has not been said what the penalties will be for breaking this law. If the penalties include a prison sentence, the police will have the authority to search people's homes if they are suspected of possessing child pornography.
The Social Democratic minister of justice, Laila Freivalds, presented this proposal as she received a delegation from the Red Cross, the Swedish Unicef committee, Save the Children, and Children's Right in Society (BRIS). These organizations presented a petition with more than 90,000 signatures supporting the criminalization of all possession of child pornography. That demand has been the rallying call of a campaign initiated in response to the frequent publication in the press of cases of child abuse, pornography rings, and reports on kidnappings and murders of children.
Several voices representing the Swedish press have argued against infringements on the constitution. Their main concern has been that it would be illegal for journalist to obtain such pornographic material for investigative purposes. But some have also warned that it is serious to break a constitutional principle. The Press Ombudsman Per- Arne Jigenius warned in daily Svenska Dagbladet, "In another situation you could imagine 90,000 signatures to remove other constitutional protections."
Critics have also pointed to that there are laws
prohibiting acts of child abuse that are enough for the
police to go after the abusers.
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