Edison Chen

Eight people have now been arrested and two charged in Hong Kong in what many netizens are calling the “white terror,” police response to the Edison Chen sex photo scandal, explained by Police Commissioner Tang King Shing last weekend when he said possession of the photos alone is now illegal.

On 4 February 2008, A 29-year-old man became the eighth person to be detained in connection with the internet posting of nude photos. The man arrested is being detained at Ma On Shan police station. On the same day, the 23-year-old man, Sze Ho-Chun, arrested in Central on 2 February 2008 was charged with the dishonest use of computers with criminal intent, which has a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment. The man appeared in Eastern Court on 5 February 2008. He denied the charge and was released on HK$50,000 bail. The case has been adjourned to 22 February 2008.

Pornography is openly sold by many street newspaper vendors in Hong Kong and versions of the photographs have been seen on the covers of most Chinese-language dailies every day since the first batch of photos appeared online two weeks ago, despite that under the city's Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, distribution is prohibited.

Hundreds of netizens came out to protest [zh] the arrests today, calling for Tang's resignation and accusing Hong Kong police of inconsistency in their arrests.

With the League of Social Democrats in the lead, a group of several hundred netizens marched this afternoon from Victoria Park to police headquarters, protesting police double standards in assigning large numbers to investigate the celebrity obscene photos as well as launching criticisms at Police Commissioner Tang King Sing, shouting in unison slogans calling for his resignation. Organizers say more than 500 people took part, but the police count was at 230.

The Macao SAR government is paying close attention to online crime and pornography and is studying a measure to 'deal with' the issues.

Zhang Yongchun, director of the Justice Affairs Department of the Macau Special Administrative Region, disclosed to media that they would listen to the opinions of different parties and consummate two draft laws on cracking down on online crime and pornography. Zhang said that the recent spread of celebrities' indecent photos in Hong Kong had caused wide attention in Macau. With the popularization of the Internet, especially with more students going online, it was urgent for them to make legislation for online crime.

Zhang said the Macau government was keeping a close watch on the influence of the Hong Kong incident on Macau and the possible problems. Though Macau still has not a special law for online crimes of this type, there are some regulations that ban the spread of erotic information online.

Beijing's Internet review council has requested a public apology from Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com after Baidu allowed users access to pornographic pictures featuring Hong Kong actor and singer Edison Chen.

The Beijing Internet news information review council issued a statement saying, We severely criticize Baidu's behavior.

A picture-sharing section of Baidu.com became a platform to show and spread the obscene pictures and Baidu failed to block the photos after other Beijing-based websites had taken actions against the pictures spreading.

The statement praised other Chinese websites that called for Internet users not to download, save and spread the photos and to prevent the photos from falling into the hands of children.

Edison Chen is to suspend his career "indefinitely"
Actor and singer Edison Chen has apologised and promised to suspend his career in the aftermath of a sex photo scandal which has gripped China.

Several people have been arrested after 1,300 private shots which Chen had taken were put on the internet.

He told a news conference he was deeply saddened and wanted to apologise to all the people for all the suffering that has been caused.

Chen said he was stepping down from his showbusiness career "indefinitely".

Canadian-born Chen is a famous Asian actor and hip-hop artist. He appeared in the Infernal Affairs trilogy, which was later made into the Hollywood film The Departed . He was also in The Grudge 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Chen said: I admit that most of these photos being circulated on the internet were taken by me. But these photos were very private and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone.

Hong Kong police say the photos were uploaded by staff at a computer repair shop which Chen took his laptop to.