Tuesday, Apr 29, 2008    Text size: 

The bill is the latest in a long line of bills that deal with criminal codes in the UK. Casually referred to as Criminal Justice Bills, this one is called the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill 2007, and one of its clauses has raised concerns among civil rights advocates and certain members of Britain’s Parliament.

The clause in question refers to "extreme pornographic images," and would make it a punishable crime to own images of acts that could be construed as “extreme pornography.”

After debate, the British House of Lords voted to retain the clause, 66 to 30.

Representative Baroness Miller proposed a set of amendments that would have excised the language referring to “extreme pornography” in the bill. She argued before the UK House of Lords that the evidence linking pornography with violence was weak, and she chastised Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"The Minister is in danger of leading his government into becoming the thought police,” she said, adding, “We do not have any evidence to justify an intrusion in people's lives.”

This bill came about in the wake of the murder of schoolteacher Jane Longhurst at the hands of Graham Coutts, a self-professed addict of “violent Internet pornography.”

Longhurst’s mother, Liz Longhurst, led a 30-month campaign to gather 50,000 signatures and garner the support of key British politicians.

The bill was first proposed in 2006. In its initial state, it only banned the possession of “violent pornography” in England and Wales, but since then, the proposed ban’s scope would extend to Ireland.