FC: Polish president vetos Europe's broadest anti-porn law, cites Net

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[So if this had become law, I wonder if I could have gone to jail for two 
years (should I choose to set foot in Poland) for 
http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/nudes.html  Seems like the answer's yes. 
--Declan]

*******

   WARSAW, March 27 (AFP) - Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski 
applied his veto to a draft law that would have banned
all forms of pornography and put violators in prison for up to five
years.
   A presidency official, Jolanta Szymanek Deresz, said Kwansiewski had 
made the decision because the law "would be impossible to apply"
given the increasing access to the Internet and satellite
television.
   The president had waited to the last minute to use his veto.    It 
looked unlikely that the ruling Christian-National Union, which drew up the 
draft law and which was supported by Poland's
powerful Roman Catholic church, would be able to rally the
three-quarters majority in parliament needed to overturn the veto.

[...]


        WARSAW, Poland, March 29 (UPI) -- By vetoing what would have been 
Europe's toughest anti-pornography law, Poland's ex-communist
president has bucked two of the country's most powerful institutions --
the Solidarity political bloc and the Catholic Church -- while
threatening his chance for re-election.
        Opponents in the Solidarity-controlled parliament are calling 
President Aleksander Kwasniewski the "pornography president" and are
vowing to use the decision against him in the upcoming fall election.
[...]
        The vetoed measure, which would have banned the production and 
distribution of both soft- and hard-core porn, has stirred emotions for
months. The Senate approved the bill in January. The president, however,
did not take a clear stand until this week.
        Under the proposal, convicted porn traffickers faced up to two 
years in prison. Porn involving violence, bestiality or children under 15
would have been punishable by up to five years.
[...]

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