World Sex Sells News

One small section of a crowd of 40,000

There's just no boom boom in Joburg's sex industry. Sex workers hoping to turn a quick buck when thousands of horny soccer fans descended on the city for the World Cup say they have been disappointed.

And while some upmarket strip clubs say business has been good, others have been forced to cancel shows.

Even metered taxi drivers delivering girls to tourists say business has died down.

In the months leading up to the World Cup, there was mounting expectation that prostitution would peak. Ludicrous reports suggested that up to 40 000 sex workers would be brought into the country to satisfy the demand for sex.

On the streets this week, the winter chill and increased police visibility meant fewer sex workers on the strip. Visits during peak cruising hours, around 9pm, to the traditional red-light areas of Oxford Street, Illovo and Sandton found fewer than 10 sex workers roaming around in skimpy skirts.

One sex worker, in her seventh year on the streets, said the tourists were boring. We have not had any luck. I usually make R4 500 a month. I was hoping I would cash in R15 000, but it has been quiet.

She had been approached by some Mexican tourists, who would have given her $500 for the night - but when she arrived at the hotel in Sandton, security refused her entry: The securities have been making our lives hard. They say they don't want girls in their hotels.

A metered cab driver said that while he had requests at the beginning of the tournament to get girls, when he brought the girls to the men, they could not agree on a price, and the girls left: They say they're being ripped off. I've stopped organising them girls because of this. I've not had any further requests since then.

Paula at Executive Shows, which provides exotic dancers for adult entertainment clubs, said business had been terrible. Since the World Cup began, the roughly 300 clubs across Gauteng for whom she books girls have cancelled shows: Guys would rather watch soccer. I am counting down the days until the end.

But it's not all doom and gloom. Gigi, owner of Lollipop Lounge, said her club has been abuzz with foreigners. She said patrons usually arrived after the last game of the night. It seems they are watching the game together and then coming out to party afterwards. After 11pm it gets busy.

The owner of an Melbourne area adult bookshop has filed a complaint with police after his controversial shop window was plastered with stickers saying boycott sexism.

The stickers were authorised by the National Union of Students women's department as part of a national campaign to highlight demeaning and sexist images in the media.

Boutique Erotique owner Yuda Meitav said he was disturbed by the vandalism to his shop window, which features photographs of naked women and men.

Union spokeswoman Keelia Fitzpatrick said the campaign started last year and would continue. The stickers were distributed to universities around the country and could have been any student from any university or women's organisation who put them there.

She apologised to Meitav for the inconvenience.

Western Australia is set to legalise prostitution in a bid to improve health standards and keep brothels out of residential areas.

Hundreds of suburban brothels are expected to close when WA Attorney-General Christian Porter ends decades of turning a blind eye and starts regulating the sex industry next year.

Prostitution is illegal in WA but police rarely lay charges unless they are related to underage sex or unsafe practices.

After nearly two years in power Porter says he is working to release a paper for public comment by the end of the year and introduce legislation into parliament in 2011.

Under the new legislation, brothels will be licensed and confined to designated commercial and industrial areas, and police will be given powers to investigate and forcibly close those which fail to comply.

Sex businesses will need to follow health and safety standards to obtain and maintain their licences. Individual sex workers will need to register with a central agency and will undergo compulsory health and blood checks. They may also be required to carry ID cards.

Porter said suburban operators would be given a grace period from next year to either close or move to a licensed area. Applications for brothels would first be put to local councils and then assessed by state regulators.

WA brothel madams welcomed the move over the weekend but feared the bid to register individual prostitutes would drive some underground. While most agreed the new regulations would improve health and safety in the industry, they said some sex workers would be loathe to have their personal records on file.

Enjoying life away from the misery guts back home in Derby

Thailand's capital of fun is how the pocket guidebook to the town describes the place, which attracts a million visitors a year. A less kind, but more accurate, description would be one huge brothel.

The average visitor appears to be male, 40 or more, probably losing his hair, frequently fat, very likely British and there for one reason only - to buy sex with young Thai women.

Though there are many other nationalities there, the town is geared to the Brits. Pubs offer heart-clotting all-day breakfasts and giant portions of toad in the hole to set up holidaymakers for a long night cruising the streets crammed with massage parlours and bars, many with names too crude to mention.

There are two kinds of bar in Pattaya. Bird apparently preferred the quieter sort, the oddly named bar-beers, over the brasher go-go bars.

[Beer bar prices start] with the bar fine. The man pays 300 baht - £6 - to the bar owner to take out a girl, and before that she earns about 60p for every drink he buys her. To make real money, she has to offer sex. [bar fine details corrected]

Short time in a room over the bar costs £20. To go back to the man's hotel for long time will cost around £30. One long-time customer will earn half of what a girl would make in a whole month of ordinary bar work.

...

One of the unexpected things about Pattaya is that there's nothing threatening or violent about the atmosphere.

Sat at a crowded bar at 2am is Peter. He's a quietly spoken, neat man in his early 60s from Derby. When one of the BGs asks if he 'wants to play', he nods enthusiastically. As a regular visitor, he knows what will happen next...

From under the bar she pulls out a game of Connect 4 and the pair of them giggle away while she thrashes him at noughts and crosses.

He might pay for 'short time' a bit later, but many evenings he just sits and chats. He says his wife is irreplaceable and: Britain is going to the dogs - can you imagine if this was Derby on a Friday night?

And in many ways he's right. In most British cities, the street would be full of girls brawling, sprawling and spewing. In Pattaya, they're smiling, decorous and attentive.

Clearly all sorts of men go there as sex tourists, not just social misfits.

...Read the full article

The United States has added Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Brunei, Laos and Maldives to its human trafficking watch list, accusing them of failing to prevent women from being forced into prostitution.

The move opens the way for the United States to cut off some civilian assistance, although it usually functions as a symbolic means to pressure countries to take action.

The report claims 12.3 million people were the victims of trafficking in 2009-2010. Previous estimates have been widely discredited, as the US seems to consider nearly all prostitutes in the world as 'trafficked'.

Bangladesh, China, India, Micronesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka remained on the list, unchanged from a year earlier. North Korea, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea remained at the bottom level of countries that do not even meet the minimum standards on human trafficking. Malaysia stays on the list but escaped the lowest category of countries that do not meet minimum standards.

The State Department recognized improvements in Pakistan, which was taken off the watch list. Taiwan was upgraded and listed as fully compliant in efforts against human trafficking after starting new services for victims. Australia, New Zealand and South Korea were also listed as fully compliant.

Explaining the downgrade for Singapore, the report said that some women from China, the Philippines and Thailand are tricked into coming to the city-state with promises of legitimate employment and coerced into the sex trade.

The State Department said that Thailand was a source, destination and transit point for trafficking, with ethnic minorities and citizens of neighboring countries at particular risk of sexual abuse or forced labor.

Green Euro-MPs want to ban the use of PVC in electrical goods for environmental reasons.

The move is aimed at old-fashioned mobile phones and dishwashers. But it would also mean a massive Rabbit cull.

The European Parliament's Environmental Committee is looking to put PVC on a list of materials that are not allowed to be used in electrical goods. They say it is environmentally unfriendly and particularly harmful when it ends up in landfill sites.

It would spell the end of PVC vibrators like some of the Rampant Rabbit range. Official documents from the European Parliament admit there are problems with finding alternative materials for some products.

An impact assessment report states: Some of these alternative materials proved unsuitable because of certain properties such as lacking flexibility or bad odour.

A European Parliament spokesman said the move was aimed at white goods. But he admitted it would hit sex toys too. In theory sex toys would be included, he said. Electrical goods end up in landfill sites often in developing countries and that is a problem.

Sri Lanka police raided hundreds of guesthouses, hotels, karaoke clubs and motels in Colombo city and the immediate suburbs, rounding up hundreds of couples, and even couples on beaches.

The pre-dawn raids were carried out under the government's supposed anti-vice programme - a killjoy campaign against pornography, adult movies and prostitution across the country.

A senior police officer said the crackdown comprised of raids across the country, in which hundreds of couples were arrested and produced in court on charges of indecent behaviour.

The police have also pulled down hoardings and banners at cinema halls that carry supposedly undesirable images. The police officer said the raids would be extended to cover places that sell illicit alcoholic beverages and narcotics or drugs.

The police checked more than 1,500 guesthouses and similar venues, and gave the owners and operators stern warnings. The senior police officer said the government was bent on eradicating vice, and that raids would be carried out on a daily basis.

Enjoying life away from the misery guts back home in Farangland

Bathed in the neon glare of endless bars and clubs, scantily clad Thai prostitutes crowd the street, beckoning Western men in with promises of sexual acts for no more than £5. They pout and strut, dressed in just knickers and bras while British punters, melting with sweat in 31°C, grab them without shame.

Desperate for the cash these sex tourists have come to spend, girls allow themselves to be groped like pieces of meat.

The girls coo phrases such as I want to be your girlfriend - but it's clearly the only English they know.

They repeat the words like a mantra, hoping to win someone's attention so they can take them to a dingy back room for 15 minutes of sex for cash.

This is Pattaya in Thailand - home to 50,000 prostitutes and where gun-toting maniac Derrick Bird repeatedly came to get a piece of this unsavoury action.

...Read the full article

abbywinters.com is closing up shop in Australia and relocating to Amsterdam after a legal battle that saw the company plead guilty to two charges of producing and selling DVDs that weren't rated by the classification board.

abbywinters.com is known for producing adult content featuring amateur Australian girls.

In a post on the abbywinters.com message board, company CEO Garion Hall said that instead of fighting a costly, protracted legal battle to set new case law he decided to move to a location where he could continue his operation without the threat of legal hassles.

We have always believed the law to be gray in this area, and the law had not been properly tested in this regard, Hall said. We could have spent many thousands of dollars in attempting to define the laws but this would have involved additional time and resources that the company could ill afford, therefore, the company plead guilty to the two charges.

Our [defense attorney] made submissions about the nature of our business, that we are reputable, well managed, have excellent systems and protocols in place, and have been operating openly since our inception 10 years ago. The magistrate accepted all the submissions made to her by our [attorney].

Hall said that the company stopped shooting in Australia as of May 28, after the resolution of the court case in which the company received a nominal fine. abbywinters.com plans to cease all Australian operations later this month.

Site members can rest comfortably knowing that much of the creative team will be moving with Hall to Amsterdam so the look and feel of the site will remain the same. Two of its shooters, two video editors, management team and back-office staff will be making the move.

Hall reassures his site's members that even though it's unlikely he will be shooting many Australian girls in Amsterdam—a key element that made the site unique—the site's aesthetic of shooting amateur content remains the same.

Australia's Northern Territories Government has rejected a call for brothels to be opened in the Territory.

Chief Minister Paul Henderson said the idea wouldn't be considered.

And a Christian nutter group came out strongly against legalising brothels in the NT.

The Australian Christian Lobby said the NT should adopt the Swedish model - and make it a criminal offence to buy sex or run a brothel.

ACL Managing director Jim Wallace claimed the new laws there led to the number of women involved in prostitution being cut by two-thirds, the number of men buying sex falling by 80% and a huge drop in women being smuggled into the country for prostitution.

The NT Sex Workers Outreach Program has called for legal brothels. Program organiser Seranna Shutt said: That would be best practice for health and safety.

There are about 50 sex workers in the Territory, most operating from a Darwin escort agency.All agency women must be registered with police.

Ms Shutt said the registration system should be scrapped because personal details were kept by police forever.

Wallace said the Government should reject the call for brothels: Legalising brothels does nothing to address the appalling exploitation of women in the sex industry, but instead dramatically increases the problem, as well as increasing trafficking in women.

Wallace claimed the NT system of licensed escort agencies didn't work either.

Thousands of mass killers enjoying Pattaya nightlife

Since Bird killed 12 people last week, there has been widespread incredulity that this mild-mannered (according to some accounts) man could have harboured such lethal rage. The search for his motive focused first on a supposed family feud, moved on to a row with other taxi drivers and has even encompassed being made a fool of by a Thai woman.

Bird travelled regularly to Pattaya in southern Thailand and acquaintances describe him as in love with the woman, who is said to have accepted at least £1,000 from him before breaking off the relationship by text. I am far from satisfied with these accounts

...

Pattaya, the resort Bird visited regularly, isn't a beach paradise. It's a centre of Thailand's deeply exploitative sex trade, where foreign men go to pay for sex – it costs as little as £10 – with young Thai girls and women who have been forced into it by poverty. Here is the account of a barman, Chris Bulmer, who knew Bird and witnessed his transactions with women who worked as prostitutes:

He slept with a few of my girls upstairs and soon got a taste for it … But in the end he would only want to see one young lady in particular. She was about 22 and pretty. He became obsessed. He loved her and whenever he came back he would immediately find her, compensate the bar [probably he said 'pay the bar fine'] and take her away. She was his. And that was how he saw it.

The barman told the Sun that Bird was besotted and fell into a rage if the young woman wasn't available whenever he wanted her. In the end, according to Bulmer, she became terrified of Bird and ran away.

...

The widespread cultural imperative to normalise sex tourism by Western men in south-east Asia is a barrier to admitting how damaging the trade is to women. But it also does something else: prevent us from seeing at an earlier stage that there is something very seriously wrong with men like Bird.

 ...Read the full article

Porn star and Playboy model Brigitta Bulgari has been jailed facing child sex charges – after letting the audience grope her during a nightclub show only to find that two 15 year old boys had taken part.

The 27-year-old Hungarian star, real name Brigitta Kocsis, was remanded in custody after Italian judges saw videos of goggle-eyed teenagers touching her intimately during the performance in Perugia – which the boys had uploaded to Facebook.

I think the judge is just biased against sexy women, fumed her lawyer: Brigitta was just doing her job – dancing. But she has to stay behind bars. She has no criminal record, whereas the owner of the disco, who employed her and let the young boys in was set free.'

Young Blaggers

Thanks to Alan:

It seems that Ms Bulgari has been charged with public indecency and producing pornography involving minors, although the only pornography appears to be the clips uploaded by the kids themselves. The show was a a kind of rather vigorous striptease, without the no touching rules imposed in some lap-dancing establishments. The kids seem to have blagged their way into the show, and several people have commented on Italian websites that the woman could hardly have been expected to check their ID cards in mid-show.

The presence of the kids was: (a) their own fault, (b) their parents' fault, (c) the venue's fault, (d) the organizer's fault, and (e) the bouncers' fault, but hardly the performer's. You can see an example of her shows at YouTube with links to other similar performances.

A Free Brigitta site (in Italian) has been opened including a petition intended for Italian citizens.

It's interesting to see on the petition page that Giuliano Mignini is the prosecutor (pubblico ministero) involved. Mignini is eccentric, to put it mildly, and no fan of freedom of speech in any field. He is the prosecutor in the Amanda Knox case and is currently prosecuting her again for defamation of the police, for WHAT SHE SAID IN EVIDENCE IN HER OWN DEFENCE.

He has crossed swords with the American writer Douglas Preston and his Italian co-author Mario Spezi, who questioned his competence in the Monster of Floernce murder case, actually having him arrested.

Comment: Bail Irony

7th June 2010. Thanks to Alan
See Amanda Knox head prosecutor charged with 'abuse of power' from westseattleherald.com

It is ironic to note that while the unfortunate Brigitta is remanded on custody, although as yet found guilty of no offence, the prosecutor Mignini is on bail awaiting appeal after being sentenced to jail for abuse of power in another case.

Italian jurisprudence is arguably dysfunctional in any event, with a symbiotic relationship betweeen investigating magistrates (giudici per le indagini preliminarie), prosecutors (pubblici ministeri) and police/carabinieri likely to lead to dodgy convictions in any case. But it beggars belief that a prosecutor convicted of a criminal offence related to his office should remain at work and actually prosecute a case like the Kercher murder, where the victim, two of the three accused and the eliminated suspect were foreigners - guaranteeing the attention of the foreign press.

Update: Got Bail

29th August 2010. Thanks to Alan

I found some references to her case in Italian language resources by using Google. It would also appear that the unfortunate stripper thrown in an Italian slammer when some randy little sods got into her show, Brigitta Kocsis AKA Bulgari has got bail.

Update: Bulgari Acquitted

11th October 2011. Thanks to Alan

Recently read on Perugia Shock website that Giuliano Mignin's other young woman victim, the stripper Brigitta Kocsis (aka Brigitta Bulgari) has also been acquitted. [She had been in trouble about a striptease show where an underage spectator was found, but this was nothing to do with the performer].

This guy is a complete nutcase. He was also reported to have prosecuted an English couple who let wild poppies grow in their garden, accusing them of cultivating heroin!

South Australian sex workers have received renewed hope that prostitution will be decriminalised as high-profile supporters get behind their cause.

At a rally on the steps of Parliament House, Labor backbencher Steph Key announced she would introduce a private member's bill to decriminalise the industry.

She hopes draft legislation will be completed by the end of the year and a conscience vote will follow: The aim would be to ensure we have the highest amount of protection for sex workers and their clients.

A poll on AdelaideNow revealed more than 70% of voters believed prostitution should be legalised.

Also supporting industry reform yesterday were Minister for Women Gail Gago, Greens MP Tammy Jennings and Liberal MP Michelle Lensink.

Street walkers in Cartagena, on Spain's southern Mediterranean coast, have complained that the imam of a local mosque has launched a campaign of intimidation to get them off the streets.

Yazid Koudri, president of the Islamic community of Cartagena and the imam of the Ennour mosque, has been accused of sending a team of Muslim guards onto the streets to prevent the women from working.

Police confirm that they have received several complaints from prostitutes working in the streets around the mosque, including one woman who claimed the imam had tried to run her over in his car.

Others said the imam sent a team of his faithful onto the streets encouraging them to insult the sex workers and threaten violence.

Koudri has openly lobbied authorities to crack down on the red light district, which has emerged on several streets around the mosque in what local newspapers have termed a jihad against prostitution.

We are not against what these women do, Koudri stated: ...BUT... ask that they don't do it in the streets where our children walk.

The local prosecutor has applied for a restraining order to prevent the Imam going within 200 yards of the sex workers.

Spain has announced that it will address women's issues during its turn at the rotating EU presidency.

The Spanish Minister for Inequality, Bibiana Aído, affirmed that the relation between the media and equality should be extensive and that they should be moving in the same direction and she stated that it is time to emphasise in capital letters questions such as the struggle against gender violence and against sex trafficking.

The Spanish Minister also pointed out that it is time to eliminate publicity that trivializes prostitution (...) and which is an affront to the dignity of women, in reference to announcements for sexual contacts in some European publications.

Usually veiled in an abaya, Khadija Ahmed looks an unlikely owner of the conservative Gulf's first sex shop.

She sees nothing wrong, however, with selling joy jelly, edible undies or the vibrating accoutrements offered by such niche boutiques around the world, insisting that nothing in Islam forbids the pleasures of the bedroom.

It's not a sex shop in the Western sense, she explained, but a place to help married couples, and only married couples, enjoy sex to the full. Ahmed, who admits that she cannot, of course, check identity cards to see whether clients are married or not.

Her shop, named Dar Khadija, aims to provide a service to married couples by making their sex lives more exciting than the lure of an affair.

If whips and leather bondage suits are what you're seeking to pep up your sex life then you won't find them in Dar Khadija. Nevertheless, it does offer risque bedroom accessories and kinky lingerie, plus a selection of ladies' clothing which range from jeans and tops to fancy evening dresses and embroidered abayas.

In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, with its notoriously strict brand of Sunni Islam, such an outlet would be unthinkable. But Bahrain's relatively liberal environment has made the Gulf archipelago an attraction for visitors from more conservative Muslim states in the region.

A Bolton Euro MP has called for brothels to be made legal to provide greater security for prostitutes.

Liberal Democrat Chris Davies believes the murders of three prostitutes in Bradford highlight the urgent need for a new approach. He said: It is appalling that two or more prostitutes cannot work together under the same roof for their mutual protection without fear of criminal prosecution. The law does nothing to help keep them safe.

Davies added that local councils should be required to treat the licensing of brothels as a planning issue, following national guidelines to ensure minimum disturbance to residents in the vicinity. He said: It's not a matter of morality, but of practicality. An open approach based on licensing and regulation will be more effective in curbing crime and exploitation.

His comments echo calls for better protection for street workers made last week in The Bolton News by Vanessa Stirling, whose daughter Carly Bateman was murdered while working as a prostitute in the town.

Prime Minister David Cameron last week said the issue of decriminalising prostitution-related offences should be looked at again.

Following an appeal over the registration of the Australian Sex Party last August, The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has issued a Statement of Reasons for dismissing the appeal.

The AEC considered two issues raised by the appellant:

• That the abbreviation to be used by the party on advertising and on voting forms (Sex Party) was obscene
• Proper procedure was not applied in assessing the membership of the party

The AEC found that: sex in itself is a completely inoffensive word. It does not become offensive merely because it identifies this particular party as being concerned with public and political issues of a sexual nature. It also found that due process in ascertaining that the party had 500 legitimate members, had been accorded.

Sex Party President, Fiona Patten, said that the initial application to register the party had drawn a wave of protest and complaints which had not stopped even after the party had been registered.

Religious and morals groups are afraid of our agenda because for the first time in Australian politics, a political party has been registered which intends to expose religious hypocrisy and fraud for what it is. Religious conservatives like Archbishop Pell, Steve Fielding, Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd are understandably nervous, she said.

Ms Patten said that she was about to lodge an application to register the party in Victoria and was hopeful of running candidates in the next state election. Although the next NSW election is still 10 months away, the onerous provisions put in place by the two major parties and the Greens made it impossible to register the Sex Party there before that state election. It's a form of gerrymandering, she said. Instead of redrawing electorate boundaries to suit themselves they have redrawn the conditions of entry into politics with much the same result.

Congratulations to Pye Jakobsen

Campaigner who has spoken all over the world, including in the House of Commons on how the banning of buying sex just does not work in Sweden, and how it makes sex workers more vulnerable.

She works closely with politicians both on a national and international level and has just returned from Coruna, Spain where she spoke in the University on alternative philosophies.

In Sweden, she runs the little strip-club collective where they share all the cash, does some phone sex and sees some regulars, mostly disabled clients.

Pye (pronounced Pia) is highly articulate and full of sexual energy.

Police in Beijing have arrested more than 1,100 suspects in connection with prostitution rings, many housed in high-end saunas and entertainment venues in China's capital, state press said.

During the one-month crackdown, dozens of high-end nightclubs and karaoke bars were shut down, as well as more than 250 hair salons, the China Daily said.

Customers are usually very rich and they pay at least 20,000 yuan (2,900 dollars) for membership and then they will be eligible for special services, the paper quoted one nightclub manager surnamed Ma as saying.

Police officials claimed that most of the nightlife spots offering prostitutes to clients were run by organised crime gangs. [They probably define organised crime gangs as people who run businesses involving prostitution and the like]

Following 30 years of booming economic growth, prostitution has flourished.

While we talked, Jenny, from Minsk in Belarus, offered me everything, what you like, all night for the equivalent of about £500. It was better if I was staying in the luxurious hotel where we were drinking, she said, but if not she knew another one, cheaper but friendly. I turned down the offer.

This was not Amsterdam's red-light district or the Reeperbahn in Hamburg or a bar on Shanghai's Bund. This was in the city centre of Dubai, the Gulf emirate where western women get a month in prison for a peck on the cheek; the Islamic city on Muhammad's peninsula where the muezzin's call rings out five times a day drawing believers to prayer; where public consumption of alcohol prompts immediate arrest; where adultery is an imprisonable offence; and where mall shoppers are advised against overt displays of affection, such as kissing.

Ayman Najafi and Charlotte Adams, the couple recently banged up in Al Awir desert prison for a brief public snog, must have been very unlucky indeed, because in reality Dubai is a heaving maelstrom of sexual activity that would make the hair stand up on even the most worldly westerner's head. It is known by some residents as Sodom-sur-Mer.

...Read full article

A French lawmaker wants to reopen brothels, outlawed in France since 1946, in order to protect prostitutes from predatory pimps and exploitation. But the sex workers say no thanks.

All of the prostitutes are against the reopening of the brothels, said Janine Mossuz-Lavau, a sociologist and expert on sexuality and prostitution.

A 2003 law introduced by then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, which made passive public solicitation a punishable crime, is partly to blame for the impasse. Criminalizing activities around prostitution, which itself is legal for anyone over 18, sent workers underground to massage parlors and bars, but also away from the city centers, to peripheral areas, the woods and the Internet. It rendered exercising this profession much more dangerous since workers found themselves isolated, Mossuz-Lavau said.

Almost seven years to the day that parliament adopted that law in March 2003, Chantal Brunel, a member of Sarkozy's UMP party who had voted for it, announced she wants to change the government's response to prostitution. She envisions reopening the brothels as spaces where workers would be safe from human trafficking and violence, treated with dignity and would even receive medical care. An estimated 59 percent of French citizens support the idea, according to a poll released last month.

But the sex workers' union, which represents more than 250 prostitutes in France, is adamantly opposed to government meddling in its business and would rather maintain as much independence over its members' livelihoods as possible.

Tiphaine Besnard, a union spokeswoman said: Our elected officials ... are doomed to repeat the same failures if they do not consult the people who live prostitution daily and know all the consequences of their policies, the union said in a March press release. We alone possess the expertise on our lives.

Among the reasons the union cites for opposing the government's proposal is the fear that brothel keepers who want to receive a cut of their proceeds would exploit the workers. Plus, the union argues, mandatory testing for sexually transmitted diseases could lead to discriminatory policies that might bar those infected from working. Instances of HIV in the pornography industry has led politicians to ask if they should be doing more to police that industry -- a scenario prostitutes would like to avoid. They are also against a system that might divide workers into camps of regular brothel workers and others who refuse to work within that system.

The Australian film-maker planning to auction off virgins in Las Vegas may have to put his plans on hold as he could face legal trouble for human trafficking.

The controversial project initially had to be moved to Las Vegas from Australia to dodge prostitution charges.

But those familiar with the Nevada sex industry now say the project could be stopped if Nevada authorities find it violates human trafficking laws, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Specifically, it could challenge the US Mann Act, which prevents the transport of females across state lines for immoral purposes.

John Sisely, the brain behind the new low in reality-TV, is a Melbourne-based film-maker who plans to turn the auction into a documentary.

Sisely has spent more than a year recruiting male and female virgins willing to auction themselves on camera. Sisely held auditions for the auction in Sydney in 2009, using posters with Virgins Wanted plastered over an image of the Virgin Mary.

Sisely plans to pay each virgin $AU20,000 and they will also receive 90% of their sale price, with the remaining 10% going to the Nevada brothel where the auction will be held. Bids will be placed online before the final auction.

The project has infuriated nutters, with Senator Steve Fielding of the Family First party branding it absurd, ridiculous and disgusting.

Junaid and Tina laid the foundations for the studio in 2002 and claim to have produced more than 90 films since.

They have, in time, learned the ropes of the industry. At first they mimicked the moves and plots of English movies but then slowly gained the confidence to add a hint of local flavour to their productions. Tina says, We wanted something that would appeal to the local audience and show them something about sex in Pakistan. Tina remembers the first time they produced a film without providing directions to the actors. It was in 2005 and, in Tina's words, it rocked the market.

The studio initially hired commercial sex workers for their films. Soon, though, they began to expand by hiring enthusiastic volunteers. They felt it would make the performances look more natural. During the filming none of the actors are allowed to use condoms.

...Read full article

7,614 women were arrested for vice-related activities in Singapore last year, 2,567 more than the total number nabbed in 2008.

However, local laws relating to prostitution do not apply to male sex workers and some lawyers are calling for such laws to also apply to them.

One lawyer, Sunil Sudheesan said while it's not illegal for women to engage male sex workers, these workers who have sex with other men could be charged under Section 377A of the Penal Code prohibiting homosexuality

MediaCorp finds out that some male sex workers are operating from an Orchard Road bar.

Police are cracking down on Kuta cowboys selling sex to female tourists in Bali.

Indonesia has detained 28 young men accused of selling sex at the resort after the release of a trailer for a documentary on Bali's Kuta cowboys. Cowboys in Paradise follows the lives of several beach boys, their families and their female patrons.

A council spokesman said that 28 people had been detained for supposedly not having proper identification or for disturbing the peace or security of our beaches.

A Vancouver porn cinema is fighting for its life as Surrey's mayor eyes the neighbourhood in which it sits for redevelopment.

Roxxxy's opened on King George Highway on Nov 15 with three rooms showing a variety of porn.

Operator Tony Perry, acknowledged by many as the granddaddy of BC's adult industry, says he got a licence for the establishment.

The theatre is a few blocks from the area that the City of Surrey and Mayor Dianne Watts are eyeing as the centrepiece of a reinvigorated urban community.

Soon after the city launched competitions for ideas to invigorate its neighbourhoods, inspectors began visiting Perry's business. They came in four times one night to measure the floors, he says. Then he received a letter telling him his business licence has been cancelled. There was no invitation to a hearing on his business, no letters saying he was in violation of city codes, Perry says.

Whether people like it or not, he says, his right to do business is protected under the right to free speech. Does he think there's a moral crusade to get rid of his business? Absolutely, he responds.

I don't think anyone wants that type of business, Watts reportedly told The Province in March. It is not the type of business we go out recruiting to come to the city, let me put it that way.

Surrey bylaw enforcement manager Ed Warzel says the licence allowing Roxxxy's to open was issued in error. But he won't elaborate on what that error might have been, as the situation is now before the city's lawyers.

Update: Morality Mayor Wins

7th June 2010. Based on article from bclocalnews.com

A sex novelty shop that screens X-rated adult movies in North Surrey has been effectively terminated by the city.

Roxxxy's, which opened up last November recently had its licence revoked by Surrey, which claimed it was issued in error.

Owner Tony Perry locked the doors and hired a lawyer. After reviewing the case, Perry's lawyer said his client would probably win the battle, but he'd ring up a huge bill in the process.

Perry said that pretty much shuts the door on Roxxxy's in Surrey for good.

An Irish court has heard how clients at two brothels in Cork were secretly filmed while using the services of prostitutes.

Caroline O'Leary has pleaded not guilty to almost seventy counts of organising prostitution and brothel keeping. Her partner Tony Lenane has pleaded guilty to twenty counts .

The charges relate to premises at Lower John street and Grafton Street in Cork on dates in 2006 and 2007.

The jury was told covert cameras were hidden in sockets on the wall and a twenty four hour feed was recorded.

The trial continues at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Update: Jailed

15th May 2010.  Based on article from irishtimes.com

A man who has made a €1 million settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau has been jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to brothel-keeping and organising prostitution in Cork city.

Tony Linnane had pleaded guilty last month to 19 counts of brothel-keeping and organising prostitution at Grafton Street and Lower John Street in Cork city in 2006 and 2007.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Judge Seแn O Donnabhแin sentenced Linnane to two years in jail but suspended the final nine months. He said he was taking into account the fact that Linnane had agreed to pay over €1 million to Cab.

Insp Declan O'Sullivan told the court how gardaํ raided 15 premises on November 20th, 2006, and seized documents, copying equipment and computers.

They found a live link between cameras hidden in sockets in the rooms in the brothels and Linnane's house which was streaming what was happening in the brothels to his house and they also found still shots of clients with some of the prostitutes.

Gardaํ found that some 190 men had visited the Grafton Street brothel in the week before the raids and 74 had visited the John Street brothel, paying on average €150 a visit.

Insp O'Sullivan agreed with Tom Creed, defending, that none of the women working in the brothels had been trafficked or forced into working there.

Beate Uhse has long been synonymous with erotic retail in Germany.

But the times, they are a-changing. In recent years, the queen of erotic chain stores has begun to lose its touch and its customers, who have gradually been turning elsewhere for their satisfaction. Most notably the Internet.

When Beate Uhse chief executive Serge van der Hooft presented the company's accounts this week, he was forced to concede significant ground to virtual pornography.

The publicly traded company's 2009 turnover was 231 million euros - 10% less than in 2008. Its operating profit fell 300,000 euros to a disappointing 2.8 million euros.

The DVD business was once our most reliable source of turnover, van der Hooft said, adding that even 10 years ago 50% of company profits came from DVDs. Now the business is as good as dead.

To try and attract more women and couples into its stores to compensate for DVD losses, Beate Uhse has launched a range of all-round domestic erotica including towels, lamps, bed clothes and even ironing boards.

It's quite a departure for a company which is known for kinky underwear, sex toys and pay-as-you-go video cabins. But this fluffier side of erotica is deemed the best way forward and the chainy.

We are opening premium shops in city centers and fun centers on town outskirts, a spokeswoman said. The fun centers are bigger and more geared towards film and entertainment, while the inner city locations are more boutiquey and offer a wellness range.

Over the road at Beate Uhse's main competitor, Orion, management sees no need to venture down the path of holistic erotica: Our customers expect a certain degree of product variety, Orion spokesman Jens Seipp told Deutsche Welle. But they don't come to us to buy towels and sheets.

Managing Director of the Novum chain of erotic shops, Lothar Schwier, says he has seen German attitudes towards sex change greatly in his two decades in the business: The right to sexuality has evolved, Schwier told Deutsche Welle. It's not only about what men want, but what women want. These days it is often women who drag men into our shops.

Sex workers in the Netherlands must be at least 21 years old and carry a pass with their photo and a special registration number, says a law amendment just filed in parliament.

People of 21 are better able than people of 18 to make a well-considered decision about whether or not to work as a prostitute, caretaker injustice minister Hirsch Ballin, who submitted the amendment, said in a statement: They are better able to deal and negotiate with clients. They are more likely to have some further education and thus be less economically dependent on prostitution work.

The amendment, yet to be adopted by parliament, will compel prostitutes to enrol on a national register and to have an entry interview on the risks of the job and alternatives, said the statement.

Registered prostitutes will receive a pass with a profile photograph and registration number, which will enable clients to control that they are using the services of a legal practitioner. Under the current law, only brothel owners and other prostitute handlers require authorisation

Update: Further Details of the registration scheme

17th April 2010. See Ministry of Injustice press release from english.justitie.nl, Thanks to Donald

Prostitutes have to be at least 21 years of age. This is Minister Hirsch Ballin's (the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Justice) proposal to the Lower House in an amendment to the legislative proposal already before the Lower House concerning the regulation of prostitution and sex businesses. Persons aged 21 are better able to make a well-considered decision about working as a prostitute than people aged 18; they are also more resilient as regards handling and negotiating with clients. Moreover, they will more often have finished an education and therefore economically less dependent on work in prostitution. Municipalities will have to conduct a substantive interview with each prostitute at the time of their registration or extension thereof.

Initially, the Dutch government chose an age limit of 18, in view of the risk that prostitutes aged between 18 and 21 would disappear into illegality. Minister Hirsch Ballin wants to combat this with strict checks and making illegal prostitutes, operators and their clients punishable.

Prostitutes will have to register in a national register. Upon registration, an interview has to be conducted with each prostitute concerning the risks of the business, health care and assistance, social security, insurance and possibilities to leave the world of prostitution. During such an interview, any abuses can be discussed and forwarded to the police and welfare services. Registration will only be possible in 25 to 35 larger communities throughout the Netherlands in view of the fact that conducting this type of interview requires the necessary expertise on the part of the civil servants. Registered prostitutes will receive a pass with their picture and registration number (but without their name). Clients have to check whether they are dealing with a legal prostitute by means of the pass. It is the intention that clients can establish via the Internet whether the registration number advertised by the prostitute actually exists.

There is a taboo on prostitution although it is legal in the Netherlands. Anonymity and privacy are therefore very important for prostitutes. Only a small number of supervision officials and the police will have access to the national register of prostitutes. The register will also not be linked to other IT systems (such as the Tax and Customs Administration). The details of prostitutes who retire are immediately removed from the register.

Brothels and other sex businesses (clubs, escort services, sex cinemas, massage parlours) are required to have a licence. Municipalities determine via licences where and how many brothels or other sex businesses there will be. As regards brothels and escort companies, a municipality can elect not to allow any company, the so-called zero option. The municipality does need to have supportive arguments for choosing this option that are related to public order, safety or public health. Moral arguments should not play a role.

The licences for prostitution companies will include conditions on health, safety and the right to self-determination of prostitutes. This will strengthen their position. Prostitution companies will require a permanent address with a fixed telephone line for a licence. The licences of escort services will be entered in a national registers which will create supervision of this part of the industry.

Clients who make use of illegal prostitution will become punishable because they maintain a type of prostitution where forms of abuse and exploitation can easily occur. The prohibition on the operation of a prostitution company without a licence and registration duty for prostitution creates a clear division between legal and illegal prostitution. That division is also recognisable for clients.

The act is intended to regulate the prostitution industry, not to obstruct the legal part of the industry. The new act is also intended to make a contribution to combating abuses such as coercion, abuse and human trafficking.

Punishment of violations

• Prostitute without registration or working in a brothel without a licence: A fine of at most 380 euros *
• Clients who visit unregistered prostitutes or unlicensed brothels: A fine of at most 7,600 euros or a term of imprisonment of at most 6 months *
• Sex business without a licence or violation of the statutory rules: A fine of at most 18,500 euros or a term of imprisonment of at most two years

Update: Doubts

8th February 2011. See article from dutchnews.nl

Government plans to introduce a special register of prostitutes are running into trouble in parliament, with MPs from the ruling right-wing VVD also having doubts, news agency ANP reports.

In particular, MPs say there are legal questions over the privacy of prostitutes and fears that it will drive them into the illegal sector. VVD MPs are also concerned about the cost of the registration system and regulation, ANP said.

Following a raid on an X-rated DVD warehouse in Marrickville, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on the NSW government to lift the ban on the sale of X18+ rated non-violent erotica, criticising the ambiguity surrounding current legislation and the lack of government initiative to reform the laws to bring them in line with community expectations.

It's time for the government to lift the ban on the sale of non-violent erotica in NSW, said Ms Rhiannon: It doesn't make sense for the sale of non-violent erotica to be illegal, given that it is legal to possess it. Non-violent erotica is classified as containing consensual sexually explicit activity between adults. It does not contain violence or coercion, nor does it depict people under 18 years of age.

The ambiguity in current laws means non-violent erotica can be found in petrol stations and regular video stores, exposing the material to minors and those who might be offended by it. With the ban on the sale of non-violent erotica so rarely enforced, any raided businesses are likely to be quite surprised.

The Greens are bringing a motion before NSW parliament to lift the ban on the sale of X18+ non-violent erotica and restrict its sale to adult shops.

The legal ambiguity regarding X18+ non-violent erotica only encourages a black market in the industry. It is estimated this is worth at least $200 million a year in Australia. NSW has the largest illegal adult media industry in Australia. It is believed more than three-quarters of adult materials sold in NSW are pirated.

Amending the legislation would ensure that trade in non-violent erotica occurred legally and in an appropriate environment, Ms Rhiannon said.

Tristan Taormino was the big winner at the 5th Annual Feminist Porn Awards, picking up the Smutty School Teacher Award for Tristan Taormino's Expert Guide to Anal Pleasure for Men from Vivid Entertainment's Vivid Ed line as well as the Trailblazer of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Other big winners at last night's ceremony in Toronto included:

• Visionary Award winner Shine Louise Houston
• April Flores, winner of the Hearthrob of the Year Award and star of Deliciously Diverse Cast winner Dangerous Curves, directed by Carlos Batts.
• Visionary Award winner Jiz Lee
• Emerging Filmmaker Tobi Hill-Meyer, director of Doing It Ourselves: The Trans Women Porn Project.

A major crackdown is expected on the dance bars, which are running illegally around Mumbai. Dance bars were banned from August 2005 but several of them still operate clandestinely in Mumbai and its suburbs.

Maharashtra home minister R R Patil said that if he comes across incidents or complaints of dance bars being operational, he would take action against police officials involved.

Patil's statement came during the Question Hour in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. A questioner complained that despite the ban, dance bars thrive in the western suburbs of Mumbai supposedly creating law and order problems with locals.

Patil, as home minister was instrumental in banning the dance bars. Following the ban, the Bharatiya Bargirls Union and Fight for Rights of Bar Owners' Association has moved the Bombay High Court, which lifted the ban, but allowed the Maharashtra government to move Supreme Court. The SC has admitted the appeal of the state. The ban, however, remains in force.

While some of these work in the dance bars, which operate clandestinely and take in only selected patrons, some girls on the other hand – have been hunting other jobs since the dance bar ban. Some of them has taken to mujras, some are now working as waitresses in orchestra-bars, some have moved to the Gulf and some have taken to prostitution.

In 1986, there were only 24 dance bars in the city. Within a year the number reached to 32. Within a decade the number went up to 206 and by 2005 the number rocketed to 1250. And, finally came the ban in 2005.

This week's seizure of over 1,400 allegedly illegal X18+ DVDs from a warehouse in Marrickville, has shown New South Wales and all other state classification laws to be in conflict with Federal government laws. The case will be the first prosecution brought in Australia for selling an X18+ federally classified film over the internet.

Australian Sex Party President Fiona Patten said that the raid and seizure of the X18+ DVDs was a joint action by NSW Police and officers of the federal Classification Board (CB). These officers of the Board work side by side with other Board officers who classify these films as legal tender for the Commonwealth and it represents a clear conflict of interest. How can you have public servants in the same agency approving films for the general public on the one hand and then on the other, they help police prosecute people for selling these films'?

Further to this, federal Communications Minister, Steven Conroy, has recently stated that X18+ material will not be blacklisted under new internet filtering proposals because only material that is illegal will be blacklisted.

She said that the internet made a mockery of state laws that prohibited the sale but not the purchase or possession of classified X18+ films. State governments now appear part of the Nanny State for continuing to support prohibition on this popular product even though many state MPs and their staff purchase and watch X18+ films on and off line. I would like all NSW state MPs to have the honesty and integrity to stand up and say if they have ever purchased and watched this material and the reason they support continued prohibition.

Ms Patten said that the drain on police and court resources to enforce the prohibition ran into millions of dollars each year. Twelve police officers were taken off community policing for a day to raid the Marrickville warehouse. They will spend at least another two weeks processing and storing the 1,400 films ready for court and will have to pay $800 each to have them classified. The taxpayer is being asked to spend well over $100,000 and waste valuable police resources to prosecute an obscenity case where the films have been checked and classified by Commonwealth censors and are legal on the internet.

Ren Savant's The 8th Day has been Refused Classification in Australia for a second time.

A look at the synopsis shows the plot to be way too ambitious to stand any chance of being rated X18+ (hardcore) in Australia. (ue to 'non violence' requirements even in the non sex plot scenes).

The sexed-up sci-fi film, billed as an apolcalyptic erotic adventure, won a total of seven AVN Awards. The film stars Kayden Kross and Amber Rayne, and it's one of the rare pornographic films that's actually worth watching for other reasons: Think Stephen King's The Stand, but, you know, with a lot more sex.

refused-classification.com have noticed the number of hardcore titles being banned in 2010 to be down on previous years.

We seriously doubted that the Classification Board had become more lenient so we took a look at the number of submissions for the January to March period and found them to be 138, this compares to 218 for 2009, 206 for 2008, 205 for 2007, and 253 for 2006.

So 2010 is significantly down on previous years. Having failed to be legalised in all the States, and with the internet and unrated DVDs eating into the market, X-rated titles could soon be few and far between.

Pattaya police of the Child and Women Protection Unit, held a press conference to announce the arrest of an American National accused of producing pornographic images and videos in his Central Pattaya Apartment.

Anthony Paul from USA was detained for producing the material for well known pornographic subscription websites. Paul was found to be in possession of video making equipment, sex toys, marijuana, a small quantity of Opium, a loaded revolver and a selection of women's clothing.

Paul will now go to court to face a variety of charges relating to his arrest.