Posted on 04/05/2007 4:46:40 PM PDT by Valin
Jakarta, 5 April (AKI) - A court in the Indonesian capital Jakarta has cleared the editor of the Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine of any wrong doing, on Thursday. The decision angered local hard-core Muslim organizations, who have accused the magazine of potentially "destroying the morals of Indonesian children." In justifying his decision, judge Efran Basuning, said that pictures of scantily dressed women could not "be categorised as pornography," under Indonesian criminal laws.
The editor in chief of the magazine, Erwin Arnada, 42, had been accused of indecency for allowing the publication of scantily dressed women in the local version of the US magazine that started publishing last April.
For the alleged crime, the prosecutor has asked for a two year sentence: a request deemed too lenient by the Islamic groups that stoned the magazine office when it first hit the newsstands last April.
Indonesia Playboy has since moved its headquarters in the predominately Hindu island of Bali.
Unlike its American version and editions in dozens of other countries, Indonesian Playboy contains no nudity. Its content has been carefully tailored to conform to the customs of the world’s most populous Muslim country.
However, Indonesia has a market of pornographic and semi-pornographic magazines, tabloids and DVDs that – although illegal – are sold more or less openly in the streets of the main cities.
It’s long been that case that crude pornography in either pictures or text is far less objectionable to those who object to it, that sophisticated or well written pornography.
Even back when Fanny Hill, the “first erotic novel” was written in 1748, the streets were actually full of all sorts of far cruder and poorly written pornographic penny novels, which were generally ignored by polite society.
Fanny Hill wasn’t, as it was well written. It caused a great hubbub and was heavily censored. And in its latest incarnation, Fanny Hill was *still* banned in the United States as late as 1963.
Just goes to show what good grammar and a clever writing style can accomplish. Plus plot and interesting characters.
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