POLISH PRESIDENT VETOES ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY LAW
WARSAW (CWNews.com) - Polish President Aleksander
Kwasniewski on Monday vetoed a new law that would have set
up new, tougher anti-pornography measures, saying it would
have unfairly curbed personal freedoms.
"The president vetoed the bill because its enforcement
would institute censorship and limit an individual's
freedom to make ethical and artistic choices," Barbara
Labuda, a presidential adviser on social issues, said.
"Pornography is difficult to define and therefore its ban
is hard to enforce. It is possible, however, to protect
children and those who do not wish to see pornography,
which is what the existing law does," she said.
The law would have banned the production and distribution
of all pornographic materials, the strongest law of its
kind in Europe. The measure would have set up punishments
of up to five years for dissemination of hard pornography,
defined as the depiction of sex involving children,
animals, or violence, and two-year terms for milder forms
of pornography.
The bill's supporters do not have the two-thirds majority
to overturn the veto. Recent opinion polls found voters
were evenly divided on the ban.
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