Child porn on streets stirs outrage

[Admin]

Child porn on streets stirs outrage
SUKHUMVIT VENDORS OPENLY SELL VCDS
Published: 3/10/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News

Child pornography is being openly sold on the footpaths of the city's busiest road, outraging both tourists and residents who said it would not be tolerated in any other country.



After receiving several complaints about the DVD and VCD vendors along Sukhumvit Road between Soi 3 and 21, the Bangkok Post Sunday discovered that child pornography was openly displayed on tables along with copies of the latest Hollywood blockbusters.

The child pornography, sold on VCDs for 80 baht a disc, featured children from Burma, China, Europe, the Philippines and Thailand. Some of the VCD covers, which graphically showed children in sex acts, advertised that the children were as young as seven years old. Pornographic videos of bestiality were also displayed by vendors.

Several diplomats who live in the area expressed dismay when told of the open sales and after being shown the explicit covers of the VCDs.

''This is totally outrageous and should not be tolerated by the authorities,'' said one ambassador who lives in the area. ''You would have to look hard for any country in the world where this would be allowed, let alone on the main tourist street of the capital.''

One resident who alerted the Bangkok Post Sunday to the VCDs said he was horrified that police were not cracking down on the vendors. ''They were being openly sold on roadside stalls at about 3pm on a Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe it.''

The open display of pornography would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, although pirated Hollywood movies were freely available.

Often the sellers of the Hollywood movies only display the covers, and get an assistant to retrieve the actual discs to minimise the chances of arrest.

A senior police officer who works on copyright infringement said local police and other enforcement agencies can confiscate obscene materials based only on the displayed cover.

''To distribute or exhibit obscene materials is a criminal offence under Section 287 of the penal code of Thailand with the punishment not exceeding three years' imprisonment or fine not exceeding 6,000baht, or both,'' said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous.

''It is a quite easy case; you don't have to do much investigation because it is there on display. The policeman or any other authorised person can just take it from the stall and arrest the vendor. That's all. But someone has to go there and do it. This is the problem.''

He added that the pirated pornographic video trade is run by ''influential people'' so there was only a remote chance it would ever be stopped. ''It is like a certain casino on Phetchaburi Road _ not far away from Pantip Plaza _ which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No one raids the building. The people who work there and run the place are untouchable,'' the officer said.

Last Thursday, the Bangkok Post Sunday team counted 17 stalls between Soi 3 and 21 selling pirated movies, with nine displaying pornography. There were 18 other stalls selling sex aids and erectile dysfunction drugs, eight of which were also offering a variety of sex toys.

Despite the open display of pornography on Sukhumvit Road, there is virtually none on Silom Road.

''This might indicate different police districts,'' said the officer. ''Silom Road is under the jurisdiction of Bangrak police station and has a different set of rules from the Lumpini station, which has jurisdiction over Sukhumvit Road.''

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/199391/child-porn-on-streets-stirs-outrage

[Admin]

Child porn on sale despite 'Crackdown'
Published: 10/10/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News

Child pornography and other explicit films are still being sold openly along Sukhumvit Road despite a police promise to crack down on the illicit sales.

After the Bangkok Post Sunday broke the story last week, we revisited the stalls from Monday to Friday and observed an increase in the total amount of pornography being sold, with explicit gay movies added to the titles on offer. Child pornography was still openly on sale, along with bestiality movies.

Saravuth Chindakham, chief of Lumpini police station which covers the area, said yesterday police were trying to crack down on sellers of the child pornography VCDs and DVDs.

The crackdown was ordered by the chief of Metropolitan Police Division 5, Pol Maj Gen Anuchai Lekbamrung, following our report last Sunday which found the pornography on sale between Sois 3 and 21. Pol Col Saravuth admitted it was difficult to catch the vendors red-handed as the stall owners dispersed before police arrived. He said the main tactic officers used was to pose as a buyer.

''At least pressure from police will make it difficult for them to do business,'' he said.

Pol Lt Col Piyoros Kanhasiri, an investigator at Lumpini station who is directly responsible for the cases, said he sent his team to the area once, but the sellers closed their stalls. He said officers would police the areas regularly to try to put an end to the problem.

During our follow-up investigation last week, our team spent about two hours a night observing the stalls. We saw no attempt by police to confiscate the offensive material or make an arrest and the sellers appeared unworried by any threat of a police crackdown.

One of the street's largest sellers of child porn had it on display on Friday night.

''What do you want? Thai, Japanese or European?'' said the vendor to passing tourists, including adultsparents with small children.

When one passer-by stopped to look, he asked, ''Do you want 'Lolita'?'', pointing at covers showing children aged under 10. ''I can sell you one movie for 100 baht or six for 500 baht. You can buy now,'' the seller said pushing to make a sale.

The amount of child pornography on display varies throughout the day; however, we noticed it was always available after 8pm.

One seller boasted to the Bangkok Post Sunday team that child pornography was now available on DVDs instead of VCDs ''which are not so good in quality''.

A foreign diplomat who lives in the area and has been monitoring the situation on a daily basis since the story was published, said he was amazed that the obscene material had not been seized.

''They don't have to mount a big operation or make many arrests, they just have to take it away so thousands of passers-by don't have to look at it,'' said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

He said that authorities' inaction could embolden the vendors. ''They are encouraged to continue and even increase their business because they know that they are well looked after by someone powerful.''

During our follow-up investigation, Some vendors became suspicious and packed up for two hours on Friday night after we started asking about the sale of child pornography. But the stalls reopened two hours later, with the pornography again on display.

One of the sellers said he was aware of the Bangkok Post Sunday story, but was not worried about being arrested as it was not published by a Thai-language paper.

http://bangkokpost.com/news/local/200579/child-porn-on-sale-despite-crackdown

[Admin]

UNICEF urges Thailand to crack down on child pornography

BANGKOK, October 11, 2010 (AFP) - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Monday urged Thailand to take tough action against people found producing, distributing or selling child pornography.

The call follows local media reports that child pornography DVDs are being sold openly in areas of Bangkok that are popular with tourists.
"The sale of such material is a blatant and serious violation of children's rights, and it must not be tolerated for another day," Tomoo Hozumi, the UNICEF representative in Thailand, said in a statement.

"Thailand has made great progress in protecting children from sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse," Hozumi said.

"But by not responding quickly to these reports, it is in danger of damaging its reputation as a country that is working hard to stop the exploitation of children".

Thailand is infamous for its flourishing prostitution and child sex trafficking but has made efforts in recent years to clean up its image.

[isanbirder]

So what's new?

[Admin]

Lumpini police in hot water in wake of raid
Published: 14/10/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News



Lumpini police are being investigated for alleged dereliction of duty following a crackdown by outside officers on the illegal sale of child pornography in their district.
 
The Metropolitan Police Division 5 on Tuesday night raided street stalls in the Sukhumvit area selling child pornographic material, arresting a Thai woman and two Burmese men.

Metropolitan police have now ordered an investigation to find out if the Lumpini police were turning a blind eye to child pornography after the problem was first raised in a report in the Oct 3 edition of the Sunday Bangkok Post.

"The local police are failing to perform their duty," said Pol Maj Gen Anuchai Lekbamrung, Division5 commander.

"And despite a previous order [to suppress child pornography], they've simply failed to take action."

The arrests on Tuesday night were made during a sting operation involving about 30 plainclothes and uniformed officers from metropolitan police and Wat Phraya Krai police station.

The UN Children's Fund called on the government the day before the raid to end the sale of child pornography in Bangkok.

Meanwhile, a Burmese woman and two Thai men have been arrested for allegedly forcing at least eight women into prostitution.

Anti-Human Trafficking Division police said yesterday they made the arrests during a raid on a karaoke bar in Kabin Buri district of Prachin Buri.

A complaint filed by a 17-year-old woman who said she was forced to sleep with male customers at the bar led to the crackdown, Social Development and Human Security Minister Issara Somchai said.

Seven more women - four Thais, a Lao and two Burmese nationals - were rescued from the brothel, he said.

The women were found locked in two rooms.

Three people have been charged with procuring and trafficking.

The Burmese suspect was identified only as Duan, 23. Police named the Thai suspects as Warodom Khayankarn, 27, and Thanawat Boonrong, 35.

[Admin]

Cleaning up the streets of Bangkok
Pornography is no longer openly displayed on Sukhumvit's pavements, but for how long?
Published: 7/11/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: Spectrum

The superintendent of the much-maligned Lumpini police district made a bold statement when asked about pornography recently. "I can guarantee it," Pol Col Sarawuth Jindakham said when asked if pornographic DVDs and VCDs would still be off the streets in six months' time.

Read full article:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investigation/205178/cleaning-up-the-streets-of-bangkok