Hungary for Sex

From the Budapest Times

Interest in one of Budapest’s most striking trade fairs, the Erotika exhibition and fair, will likely be high this weekend, but while sex toys are still in fashion, Hungarian-made pornographic films are suffering due to low-cost competition and an AIDS scare.

The fair is as much a celebration of porn as it is an industry forum. There will be no furtive glances or fake moustaches from the proud and enthusiastic consumers as they mingle with providers of multifarious erotic goods and services, and take in an attempt to create a world strip-tease record.

However, despite the enthusiasm surrounding the fair, those in the sex industry have differing views about whether Hungary is an erotica hotspot - either as a market for selling sexual goods and services or as a place to shoot pornography.

There’s certainly great demand for porn in Hungary, and it’s getting bigger and bigger, said Tímea Tomor, head of adult film and magazine distributor Tom Média’s wholesale division. There is interest in all the types of erotic films we sell.”

Hungary is a place where such things are freely tolerated,” co-organiser of the fair, Nándor Strausz said. It was banned for 50 years, but we were the first to develop a domestic erotica industry after the change of system. Hungarian girls are pretty and the prices are low. But the Czech Republic is a strong challenger now as the costs of making a film there are lower, he continued.

It isn’t only the Czech Republic that is vying for the title of regional porn king. For about two years now, people have been saying Romania is the place to shoot because it’s cheaper, said Roland Szabó of Harashow, a production company which offers erotic shows for special events.

We are bigger than ever this year, with 75 exhibitors and 6,500 square metres of exhibition space, Strausz said. 90% of the exhibitors are Hungarian companies, though there are a few German and Italian companies.

Perhaps one of the biggest draws for visitors, other than the opportunity for enthusiasts to add to their collection of buzzing gadgets, will be the attempt on Friday at 4pm to set a Guinness record for a strip-tease marathon. Judy Nero and Linda Rácz will be stripping for four whole hours, taking turns to do 30 minute sets, said Strausz.

Exactly how the girls are going to draw out the process of undressing for a solid thirty minutes was unclear.
For those who prefer their strippers to hail from across the Atlantic, American porn actress Brittney Sky, star of Between the Teens, Barely Literate, and The Apprentass, will perform on stage all three evenings. If customers get bored of all the stripping, they can go to the “Erotika Casino” to play roulette and win erotic prizes, and there will also be a “Porno Theatre” courtesy of Hungarian actress and director Deborah Valentine. And it is not all girls, girls, girls - Chippendale strip shows and transvestite acts are also on the programme.

  Driving Prostitution Underground

There surely seems to be an upsurge in Koreans holidaying in Thailand

Based on an article from Hankooki

The government's implementation of a law to prevent prostitution a year ago today has been half effective. Brothels and prostitutes have fallen considerably in number, with far more men thinking that buying sex is a crime or at least a shameful act. Reports show, however, that the absolute number of clients has not decreased much and the sex industry continues to flourish in other forms at other places. The red lights may have been dimmed but they are still on.

According to police reports, the numbers of brothels and streetwalkers have dropped by one-third and one-half, respectively, over the past year. Some red-light districts almost went out of business. Surveys show that 86 percent of clients frequenting gay quarters curtailed their visits since the law went into effect. Perhaps the most significant changes took place in Korean men's consciousness in that they began to have qualms in engaging in the sex trade.

But not all men. In what officials call a "balloon effect": if you push one side, the other protrudes; there has been a sharp increase in irregular or quasi-prostitution at waitress bars, karaoke rooms, massage parlors and skincare shops. A number of Internet cafes arrange sexual encounters between strangers after brief online chatting. Some sex workers and their customers go abroad, together or separately, to avoid the tough crackdown at home. In this information technology powerhouse, the sex industry is going ubiquitous.

The one-year report card shows what may be done next. The government may step up surveillance on the "invisible" prostitution that has moved into residential areas. Second, it may provide more effective rehabilitation programs to help more former prostitutes start new lives. The existing self-support training course was said to be helpful.

  Taxing Extras

From the Bangkok Post

Thai Massage parlours could be hit with higher licence fees or increased taxes under government plans to drive people out of the business. The moves comes in the wake of the controversy over the location of the Alaina massage parlour, opposite a high school on Ratchadapisek road.

PM's Office Minister Suranand Vejjajiva, said the government wanted to reduce the number of massage parlours inside and outside areas zoned for entertainment. The government will not order them to be shut as that would be unfair to these people, who have been in business a long time. Instead, we have chosen to discourage them from the business.

The operating licence fee could be significantly raised, along with higher charges on the transfer of licences. A progressive tax may also be introduced. The government wants to amend laws and regulations relating to entertainment venues, particularly on their distance from schools and places of worship as the Entertainment Venues Act is unclear on this point.

From China View

Men caught trying to pick up a street prostitute in Netherlands' port city of Rotterdam face a 65-euro fine for a first offence, Dutch news agency ANP reported recently.

If they refuse to pay, the case goes to court and an additional 10 euros is added to the amount the offender has to pay. Only in the most extreme cases will the fine rise to a maximum of 2,225 euros (2692.3 dollars).

But then you would have to be doing your best to be incorrigible, a spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor's Office in Rotterdam was quoted by ANP as saying. The Office decided to clarify the situation after Marianne van den Anker, the Alderman in charge of public safety in Rotterdam, warned on Saturday that men who do business with illegal street prostitutes should be fined 2,250 euros (2692.3 dollars).

Rotterdam City Council closed down the city's tolerated street prostitution zone on the Keileweg last week. Street and window prostitution are now illegal in Rotterdam.

Since police began a crackdown on curb crawlers in June, 128 men have been fined, the ANP reports said

From the Galway Independent

Galway City Council has said that it can do nothing about the opening of sex shops in the city, despite concerns being raised by a number of Galway people.

Residents in Dominick Street area of the city are up in arms this week over the opening of a sex shop there. The doors of the Sarah Jane’s Underworld adult store opened at the weekend.

The shop opened directly across the road from Le Club Paradiso lap dancing venue and residents are furious that the area now has two sex venues near primary and secondary schools. Some parents have even changed the route they walk with their children to school.

The shop is the fourth of its type to open in Galway city. Other adult stores, which stock items such as videos, sexy underwear, whips and handcuffs, are located on the Tuam Road, Abbeygate Street and Buttermilk Lane. An adult store opened in Bohermore last year, much to the annoyance of local residents. That shop subsequently moved to its new premises in Abbeygate Street.

A spokesperson for Galway City Council said that while concerns had been raised with the planning department, there were no laws preventing the opening of sex shops in Galway: It is not an issue that we can comment on. There is nothing we can do about it legally because it is not a planning issue per se.

Green Party Councillor Niall Ó Brolcháin said that the Government needed to look carefully at Irish planning laws. Most cities have a zone for adult stores and sex shops but we don’t have differentiation in Ireland. They seem to be opening in a hotchpotch way in Galway.

From the BBC

Sex workers from across India have pledged to intensify their campaign for legalisation of their profession.
They said the move, announced at a national convention in Calcutta, has become necessary following the closure of dance bars in Maharashtra.

Campaigners say that legal recognition is crucial for the future of the children of sex workers. The National Network of Sex Workers says that it will organise a protest march to the Indian parliament.

Swapna Gayen, Secretary of Calcutta's Durbar Mahila Samanoy Samity (DMSC), says legal rights for sex workers have become more important than ever before: Look at how the government closed down the dancing bars and threw tens of thousands of woman out of work. If these were legalised, this would not have happened.
So we demand legalisation of the sex trade in our city and in the whole of the country. It is a question of survival with dignity. She said legalisation of her trade was crucial for the children of the sex workers and their future.

Sex workers from Bangladesh, attending this convention as observers, also support the demand.

Two decades ago, Smarjit Jana, now chief adviser to the National Network of Sex Workers, organised Calcutta's prostitutes into the powerful union, the DMSC (literally Powerful Women Co-ordination Committee).  Sex workers from around India seek advice from the DMSC. The DMSC forces clients to use condoms and runs a co-operative for the women in the city's red light districts.

From Seattlepi

A federal court judge on Monday ruled that the city can no longer enforce its 17-year moratorium on new strip clubs, saying it is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.

But if the City Council votes next week to adopt a new rule banning lap dances, few new strip clubs may open, anyway.

In his 13-page ruling, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said the city's rationale for repeatedly extending the ban lacked merit. The city had argued that it was not a censorship issue, but that city officials were waiting for the state and county to adopt cabaret regulations, and that the city's Department of Planning and Development was overworked.

Marianne Bichsel, a spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Nickels, said the ruling was not unexpected. Nickels has proposed a "4-foot" rule for the city's strip clubs, which would mean exotic dancers must remain 4 feet from their clientele, and the city is working to develop new zoning regulations for strip clubs. Without the zoning regulations: You could zone strip clubs in neighborhoods throughout the city. That's what we're trying to prevent.

Surrounding communities have the 4-foot rule, she said. If Seattle is the only community that doesn't, there might be a rush of strip clubs seeking to open here.

The City Council is expected to vote next week on the proposal, which has drawn protests from the city's club owners and exotic dancers, who fear it will severely cut into their business.

The city first imposed a temporary moratorium on new adult cabarets in 1988, after the number of strip clubs in Seattle jumped from two to seven over two years. The moratorium has been repeatedly extended since then.

From Ocala.com

When the men slid into the private movie booths in the back of X-Mart Adult Supercenter they had something more on their minds than just watching the X-rated flick, according to the Sumter County Sheriff's Office.
In search of live action, they propositioned or touched another man, and that led to their arrests because their intended target was an undercover sheriff's agent.

Several men have been charged with soliciting a lewd act or battery for allegedly touching the detectives, according to Sumter sheriff's Capt. Gary Brannen. As of Friday, six men have been arrested since the store opened last year.

Jamie Benjamin, an X-Mart attorney, said he was concerned about the legality of the arrests - questioning whether the undercover officers were enticing or flirting with the patrons. Benjamin said he is asking the Sheriff's Office for the arrest reports. They leave the doors open (creating) a situation where they are trying to entice some kind of contact, Benjamin said.

About a dozen private rooms are in the back of the X-Mart building. One dollar pushed into a slot underneath the movie screen provides the patron with a couple minutes of an X-rated film.

A sign in the business states that only one patron is allowed in a booth at a time. A bulb above the door usually lights up when a room is occupied. And patrons are supposed to keep the doors locked, according to the store's management.

Caruthers said most of the men who have been arrested have walked into an occupied booth and sat next to a man, who turns out to be an undercover agent. They then proposition or touch the agent.

It's not clear what makes the undercover officers attractive to the suspects. Caruthers said his agents do not act or dress suggestively.

Brannen said undercover female agents have not been successful in sting operations at the site. A female officer would probably stick out like a "sore thumb," said Toby Hunt, an assistant state attorney prosecuting X-Mart owner Evagueni Souliaguine on the misdemeanor charge of sale of obscenity.

It clearly takes a lot of political campaigning to get freedoms for the sex industry but actually a fair amount of the restrictions are supported by elements of the sex industry.

From ABC

The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) is holding public hearings in Brisbane today into the legalisation of escort services.

The Prostitution Licensing Authority (PLA) wants Queensland brothels to be allowed to provide escorts and outcall services. PLA Chairman, Mannus Boyce, QC, says legalising escorts would encourage unlicenced operators to get licences and make them subject to safe sex requirements, workplace health and safety, and open to scrutiny from regulators.

He has told the hearing the PLA does not support licenced independent escort or outcall prostitution agencies because it would disadvantage brothels that have high set-up and operating costs.

He says a loss of commercial viability would destabilise the legal industry and could re-open the door for illegal brothels

Based on an article from The Chicago Defender

Two months ago, the Chicago Police Department launched a Web site to shine some light on the men who hire prostitutes.

This is primarily an effort to shame and embarrass people who go into communities and solicit prostitutes, said David Bayless, director of news affairs for the Chicago Police Department. They contribute directly to the diminishing quality of life in those communities.

But women's advocates and legal experts think this approach to combating the city's prostitution problem is wrong. This stands no chance of working, said Jody Raphael, a senior researcher at DePaul University who has studied prostitution in Chicago.

The police department launched the Web site in June that posts the pictures, names and addresses of "johns" who are arrested in the city for soliciting women for sex. A check of the Web site on Aug. 25 revealed about 120 photos were posted. Each photo will be taken down after 30 days.

Police say it is still too soon to determine if the program has been successful at deterring solicitations. It's far too early to tell, said Bayless, adding that some of the people whose pictures were first posted on the Web site when it was launched on June 21 are just now appearing in court.

City officials say there are up to 25,000 women prostituting themselves on the streets of Chicago, but only a fraction are arrested. And even fewer customers are apprehended for the crime. In 2004, the police department arrested 3,200 prostitutes but only 950 customers.

In conjunction with the Web site, the police department is encouraging men arrested on charges of solicitation to attend a deterrence program at Genesis House. At the one-day session, the men listen to former prostitutes and health and law enforcement officials who explain the physical, social and legal repercussions of soliciting prostitutes.

The majority of prostitution is said to occur in private clubs and businesses. Only 10 percent of prostitution occurs on the street, but most of those men on the Web site were arrested soliciting prostitutes on the street.

Legal experts say the Web site also stands on shaky constitutional ground. It is unconstitutional for the government to punish people in advance of conviction, and the purpose of the Web site appears to be to shame and punish people who haven't yet been convicted of anything, said Albert Alschuler, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law. Regardless of constitutional issues, it would be wiser of the police department and fairer to wait until after a guilty plea [or a] conviction at trial . . . before it seeks to punish people.

From The Nation

Phra Nakhon District Office’s director, Noppadol Savikamin, is pushing to declare Bangkok's Sanam Luang off limits between 11pm and 5am every day.

Noppadol said yesterday that he hoped the plan could be implemented as early as Thursday.

The idea is to stop prostitutes from plying their trade and to prevent derelicts from sleeping and littering on Sanam Luang. We plan to have more than 100 police patrol the area during the off-limits hours, Noppodol said.

He said Khunying Nathanon Thavisin, Bangkok’s city clerk, had already approved the plan, which will be put before executives at Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for further discussion today.

Sanam Luang is the tourist area around the Grand Palace. A low quality area that is highly unlikely to appeal to farangs at night.

  Stop And Search

From Khaleej Times

Malaysia has authorized police officers to carry out random checks and detain people with pornographic images found on their mobile phones, a news report said.

Phone shop operators who provide downloading services for porn could also be charged for its possession, which is illegal in this Southeast Asian country, the New Straits Times newspaper reported. The offense carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and 50,000 ringgit (US$13,292) in fines.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar said the decision was in response to an earlier news report in the Malay-language tabloid Harian Metro that teenagers were recording images of mass sex parties and distributing them using their video-enabled mobile phones.

Although pornography is illegal in this mostly Muslim country, enforcement has mostly been weak. The government began taking a tougher stand recently, blaming rising crime and moral problems among youths - such as rape and teen pregnancies - on unfettered access to pornography, especially on the Internet.

A salesman allegedly found with a laptop computer containing a downloaded pornographic movie was charged in May in an unprecedented move.

Recently, the country’s largest telecommunications company, Telekom Malaysia, began airing television advertisements featuring Web filters and software to help parents block access to Web sites considered unsuitable.

From Chiangmai Mail

Entrepreneurial Thai students have devised a new way to make money. They take nude photos of themselves to sell to shops that retail them to clients to download onto mobile phones, all for 200 baht each.

Porn pictures are easy to download from some mobile phone shops.

The commissioner of the Provincial Police Bureau Region 5 is now spoiling the fun by checking shops purchasing porn pictures from students.

Female students short of money use camera cell phones to take their own ‘naughty’ images to sell to mobile phone download service shops at 300-500 baht a time, depending on their scale on the shop porno-meters. Students often exchanged such pictures amongst themselves and, it was also claimed, that some who had received pictures by this method, sneakily and without permission, on-sold them to the shops for a little extra disco money.

The shops will in future, if discovered, face prosecution, after any doubtful downloads are thoroughly inspected by the Thought Police.

From Leading the Charge

Eight U.S. men were arrested in Rio de Janeiro on charges of hiring prostitutes to shoot pornographic films after one of the women complained to authorities that she had been underpaid, police said on Wednesday.

The men were arrested in a luxurious house in the Sao Conrado beachside neighborhood of the Brazilian city. Police said they found six local prostitutes wearing bikinis as well as video cameras and equipment in the house. Several pornographic tapes made in Rio were confiscated.

Prostitution is legal in Brazil and making porn films is not unlawful. But it is a crime to exploit prostitutes. Two Brazilian women in the house also face similar charges.

From 10 News

Tijuana in Mexico have cleared the way for prostitution to be legal at massage parlours. It was done to have more control over this underground industry.

For the most part, people who work and live in Tijuana say they're OK with these type of businesses being open, but they wish they weren't right in the heart of tourist areas, 10News reported.

City official Alfonso Bustamante says the city might try relocating the parlors elsewhere. The city already has an infamous red light district where prostitutes practice their profession out in the open.

Tijuana's city council decided to legalize prostitution in massage parlors because it was happening already. This way, the women will have to register with the health department and must be tested on a consistent basis.

Tijuana officials say tourists won't be bothered and probably won't notice anything even at parlors found in tourist areas.

From TVNZ

The Christchurch City Council has decided to appeal against a New Zealand High Court decision which overturned its brothels bylaw.

The council passed a bylaw last year restricting brothels to the central business district, but it was challenged by the Willowford Family Trust, which wanted to run a brothel outside the central district

Last week Justice Panckhurst said the bylaw was not valid in the terms of the Prostitution Reform Act.

He said while the bylaw was not unreasonable, it's practical effect was to prevent the existence of owner-operated brothels and quashed the sections of the bylaw relating to location.

City councillors have voted nine to two in favour of appealing against the decision, with the action expected to cost $25,000

From The Guardian

One of Germany's biggest luxury brothels is being built in the capital to cater for visitors to next year's World Cup. The 60-room bordello - oddly named Artemis after the goddess of chastity - is within walking distance of the Berlin Olympia stadium.

Prostitution, which was legalised in Germany three years ago, is expected to be a huge moneyspinner during the competition, with brothels paying around €20 (£13) for each prostitute each day to the authorities.

Andrea Petsch of the prostitute support network Hydra said: The World Cup is a mega-event and lots of money will be made in many areas, one of which is prostitution. Experts predict that around 40,000 foreign prostitutes will travel to Germany for the football tournament. To save the public from spotting women "offering their services", wooden huts are to be erected close to stadiums in cities including Dortmund and Cologne. It is planned that the "love shacks" will be assembled in a designated area, complete with condom machines and snack bars.

Petsch  said: I understand it is not going to be like the average brothel, where the prostitutes stand waiting at the windows. It will be more like a spa, with saunas, jacuzzis and bars.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002, to remove the industry from criminal hands and to improve working conditions. In most cities there is a legal red-light district, known as a "tolerance zone", but the trade is banned elsewhere. Germany's largest brothel, which has 120 rooms, is in Cologne, where authorities collect €700,000 (£460,000) a month from the trade.

From Newstalk ZB

Porn-site operators have long found that it's easy to make a buck in the online adult industry. The hard part is getting the entire $1 into your hands.

In the United States, adult webmasters typically use credit-card processors that take 10 percent to 15 percent out of each charge in return for accepting the risk of working with an industry known for its high level of "chargebacks." Those are the refunds that customers often get when they claim there's absolutely no possible way they signed up for an $80 annual membership to, say, a balloon-fetish sex site.

Now, some porn insiders think they have a better idea: Why not reduce fees by directly tapping the checking accounts of users with a billing system like PayPal?

With such a system, they could even charge people 99 cents per glimpse at a dirty picture, a la iTunes. Think "PornPal," but maybe not by that name. (The PayPal people, who haven't worked with the adult industry since they were bought up by eBay three years ago, might sue.)

The porn folks even have a potential suitor in mind: the world's largest search-engine company. Last month, word leaked out that Google was looking to create an online payment system, perhaps along the lines of PayPal. Even as Google tried to dampen speculation, porn-site operators dared to dream. Maybe, just maybe, the new Google Wallet would embrace the wide world of adult sites.

It's going to be a very tempting proposition for Google to pick up where PayPal left off, said Andy Beal, a vice president at the search-engine-marketing firm WebSourced.

Indeed, the market for a new billing scheme is wide open. Some adult webmasters are experimenting with payment systems based in Europe that allow micropayments. Cell phones may provide other ways to bill people for X-rated material. However, there's no porn equivalent with the cachet of PayPal.

Will Google bite? For now, it isn't saying much. In a written statement, chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said the company is "working on things in e-commerce." But it doesn't intend to offer a PayPal-type system, he said. The company declined to provide further details about its plans.

Beal expects Google will use its new payment system to allow users to buy access to videos for small amounts of money. Even if it doesn't expect to take on PayPal immediately, Google has shown a willingness to adapt to changing times, Beal said: There's definitely a high chance that they'll compete with (PayPal) in the future.

From Newstalk ZB

The New Zealand High Court has quashed sections of a Christchurch by-law restricting brothels to the inner city.

Justice Panckhurst has released his reserved decision in the case against the Christchurch City Council's brothel by-law. Justice Panckhurst quashed the two clauses of the bylaw which govern the location of brothels. However, a challenge against clauses in regards to signage was not upheld.

The Willowford Family Trust and Terry Brown took the action against the City Council for its inner city zoning for brothels, arguing it is too restrictive on sex workers.

The architect of legalised prostitution, Labour's Tim Barnett, has welcomed the decision, saying he believes the by-law was against the spirit of the Prostitution Law Reform Act. Tim Barnett says those who will benefit from this ruling are those who do not want to work in big brothels or on the street, but prefer the safety of their own homes.

From The Townsville Bulletin

The Four Townsville sex shop owners have vowed to take their fight against what they call 'a stupid state law which exists only in Queensland' to an appeal court, after they were found guilty and fined for selling prohibited publications yesterday.

The four, Colin Edwards of Sweethearts, Robyn Wong of Hot Stuff, Bill Munro of Original Sin and Simon Preuss of Extasy, were charged with the offences in 2001, when an incognito inspector bought magazines from each establishment.

The matter was delayed in coming to court until after constitutional challenges had been dealt with in two similar cases. Those challenges, the same as the Townsville owners' argument that the Queensland law was overruled by a contrary Commonwealth law, both failed and were thrown out.

After hearing witnesses and legal argument, Magistrate Laurie Verra adjourned for five hours to consider his findings. In a 30-minute judgment handed down early last night, Verra said it was a curious situation where the sale of such classified magazines was legal everywhere but in Queensland.

But he ruled against defence barrister Laurie Middleton's argument that the Queensland law was overruled by a Commonwealth, which holds that governments cannot intervene in the private sexual conduct of citizens. Verra agreed with Robert Vize, for the Department of Fair Trading and previous appeal rulings that the issue was about the sale of goods, not about private sexual conduct. Restrictions on sales of pornographic material do not impinge on private sexual conduct, Verra quoted from Court of Appeal documents.

He found that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the offences had taken place, and found all four guilty as charged.

Middleton asked the magistrate to consider this was not a serious offence in the light that it was legal everywhere else in Australia. My clients should get credit that they are regulating themselves, they ensure their goods are away from the street and passers-by cannot see anything which may offend them.

Verra told the defendants that they were all reputable business people who had been operating their concerns for many years 'in an industry necessary to society'. For that reason, he said he would not record any convictions, because all had clean records. Referring to the contradiction between the relevant laws of the Commonwealth and other states in relation to Queensland, Verra said, It is not for me as a magistrate to embark on any political considerations.

He fined the companies operated by Edwards and Preuss $1000 each, and ordered they both pay $800 in professional fees. The fines for individuals are lower, so Wong and Munro were each fined $600 and $800 each in professional fees.

Edwards, speaking for all the owners said the matter would definitely be appealed to the District Court.

How can two different repressive sets of legislation be so opposite. In the UK we can buy hardcore from a shop but not by mail order yet in Australia they can buy mail order but not in a shop.

From The Townsville Bulletin

Four Australian adult shop owners will know today if their challenge to a State law prohibiting the sale of erotic publications is successful. All four appeared before Magistrate Laurie Verra yesterday, pleading not guilty to charges of selling prohibited publications.

They are challenging the historical anomaly in Queensland law which says that the purchase and possession of prohibited classified material (in this case magazines) is not a crime, but selling the material is. Queenslanders can legally order such material by mail order from interstate, but local sex shop owners are breaking the law if they sell it.

Before the court were Colin Edwards, owner of Sweethearts, Robyn Wong (Hot Stuff), Bill Munro (Original Sin) and Simon Preuss (Extasy). Accompanying the defendants to court was Keith Boswell, secretary of The Adult Retail Association of Queensland (TARA), who has described the law as 'an incredible contradiction'.

Yesterday, Robert Vize, for the Department of Fair Trading, told the court that a Queensland Fair Trading officer had anonymously visited each shop in July 2001. At each place, he bought and paid for magazines off the shelf, which he then sent to Brisbane.

After examining the publications, Publication Classification Officer David Cannavan decided all the magazines were restricted and therefore not allowed to be sold in Queensland, and preferred charges against the shop owners.

Laurie Middleton, counsel for the defendants, challenged the method used by the officer to buy the magazines, arguing that the relevant Act required Fair Trading investigators to identify themselves to the operator when arriving in the store. Middleton said therefore the evidence had been gathered illegally.

Verra adjourned for several hours to consider that one aspect of the defence case, but in the end ruled against Middleton.

The matter will continue today and will centre on the defence argument that the Commonwealth Human Rights Act 1994, which covers among other things private sexual rights, makes the Queensland law invalid, as it has done in all other states and territories. Verra will be asked to rule on whether the Act's provision that no government has the right of arbitary intervention in private sexual conduct applies to the Queensland law. Verra told the parties he would deliver his ruling today when legal argument was completed.

Outside the court Edwards said if he and his co-defendants were found guilty, they would take the matter to the High Court if necessary, as a matter of principle.

  Police Paid Accompanying Service to the Nick

Based on an article from China View

More than 700 supposedly problematic venues of entertainment have been shut down in China's capital of Beijing in a recent special task law enforcement week led by the city's public security departments.

An official with the brigade for administration of public order of the municipal public security bureau said from June 20 through to July 3, they dealt with 1,700 places of entertainment which were found to have problems such as doing business without or beyond permits, prostitution, visiting prostitutes and paid accompanying service in cooperation with other departments of industry and commerce, market administration and culture.

The law enforcement workers ordered over 700 of the 1,700 venues to be shut down permanently, and rendered austerity measures, including giving fines, temporary closure for improvement, to the remainder, said the official.

In the special task action, they also destroyed 82 dens or cliques that operated law-violating activities such as prostitution under the cloak of offering entertainment services and detained 321 people who were suspected of prostitution, prostitute-visiting, gambling, drug abuse or trafficking, paid accompanying services.

  Good for the Czech Republic

From IOL South Africa

The Czech government plans to legalise prostitution as part of an ongoing struggle against organised crime, an official said on Monday. There were similar efforts to do this in the past, but the plan is back on the table, government spokesperson Lucie Orgonikova said.

According to a report in the Monday edition of the Mlada Fronta Dnes daily, the plan aims to register prostitutes, enforce health control and taxation. Those who refuse to register will be prosecuted and face fines. We will probably never eliminate prostitution from the streets, but the point is to regulate it because it is often linked to organised crime, the paper quoted Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan as saying.

Soliciting sex would be banned near schools, playgrounds, churches and cemeteries, the paper said.

Illegal prostitution is rampant in the Czech Republic, especially in Prague, the capital, as well as in regions bordering with Germany. The number of prostitutes in the Czech Republic is estimated at 25 000, the paper said, quoting police figures.