FM Masum
The government is planning to enact a law that will prohibit the production, exhibition, preservation and marketing of all sorts of pornography, allowing the court to impose a maximum five years imprisonment.
The initiative has been taken as there is no law at present to stop the production or possession of pornography which are reportedly available throughout Bangladesh, often involving woman who have not given their consent.
Inspector General of police Hasan Mahmud Khandaker told New Age that police have drafted the law and sent it to the home ministry for consideration.
It was drafted, he said, keeping the 'present context of the country in mind' in a bid to stop 'social, religious as well as moral degradation and social instability.'
The home ministry sources told New Age that it had already sent a draft of the law titled the Pornography Act to the ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs.
The police had prepared the new law after consulting laws in different countries including Canada, Italy and Sweden, but also taking into account Bangladesh's particular social and religious context, said sources in police headquarter.
The Rapid Action Battalion director general Mukleshur Rahman told New Age that the law could help curb pornography in the country.
'Yes, the draft law is now with the law ministry for its vetting, and we will take action according to the law if it is enacted. It will definitely help us to stop the production and sale of pornography,' he said.
According to the provisions of the draft law, a person convicted for offences relating to the production of pornography can receive a maximum five years imprisonment or a fine of up to Tk 50,000 or both.
Possession of pornography could result in a sentence of three months rigorous imprisonment or fine Tk 10,000.
At present, the police say pornographic CDs, DVDs and photographs are available throughout the country.
According to the intelligence agencies many actresses, models, school, college and university going girls and different professionals are duped into involvement in video pornography.
They say that some unscrupulous men including some college and university students make pornographic CDs drug the girls and then given them sex-stimulant drugs like yaba.
They also produce the pornographic videos after alluring the teenage and young girls with marriage proposals, the sources added.
In last few months, a number of cases like this have been reported to the police and in most of the cases police could not bring the culprits to justice in the absence of such law, sources said.
In some areas of Dhaka like Gulishtan, Kakrail, Jatrabari and Mirpur, pornography are being sold openly under the very nose of the law enforcers.
As per the proposed law, any sort of production of pornography, its preservation, marketing, carrying, import-export, supply, sales-purchase and exhibition will be treated as a criminal offence.
Read the original story on the daily New Age
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