Porn Banned in Ukraine, Unless Used for Medicinal Purposes

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a law into effect yesterday making possession of pornography a criminal offense.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, pornography may only be kept “for medical purposes.” Punishment for possession will include fines and up to three years of imprisonment.

...According to reports, the only working definition, featured in 2003 legislation, is based on personal judgment: “Pornography is vulgar, candid, cynical, obscene depiction of sexual acts, pursuing no other goal, the explicit demonstration of genitals, unethical elements of the sexual act, sexual perversions, realistic sketches that do not meet moral criteria and offend honor and dignity of the human by inciting low instincts.”

A new law which makes makes possession of pornography, except for medical purposes, a criminal offence in Ukraine, has raised the concerns of people who say it is an intrusion into people's private lives.

Human rights activists, lawyers and the Ukrainian artistic community are among those who have protested the law's signing.

The 2004 Ukrainian child pornography raids occurred in July 2004, when police in Ukraine raided a child pornography ring operating in the cities of Kiev, Kharkiv, and Simferopol. The ring had operated since 2001, and used a modeling agency as a front. Approximately 1,500 girls aged from eight to sixteen were said to have been to the agency. Pornographic and erotic materials produced by the agency were distributed over the internet to the United States and Canada. 

Prostitution in Ukraine is illegal but widespread and largely ignored by the government. Sex tourism rose as the country attracted greater numbers of foreign tourists. Laws criminalizing organized prostitution and penalties for human trafficking have had little effect because many convicted traffickers often do not end up serving prison time.

More than 100,000 Ukrainian women, many of them minors, have been trapped and enslaved as prostitutes in the West. (International Organization for Migration, Piotr Bazylko "Poland, Ukraine to fight sex slave industry" Reuters, 16 July 1998)

YuliaVolodymyrivna Tymoshenko is a current Prime Minister of Ukraine....

  Before becoming Ukraine's first female Prime Minister, Tymoshenko was one of the key leaders of the Orange Revolution.

 Prior to her political career, Yulia Tymoshenko was a successful but controversial businesswoman in the gas industry, which made her wealthy. Tymoshenko first became Prime Minister in 2005 between January 24 and September 8. She was elected again as PM on December 18, 2007.

Tymoshenko is a candidate in the presidential elections in 2010.