Yup, you probably thought you didn’t read that headline right. You did. Not only is it illegal to publish and/or distribute pornographic materials, you can’t even legally own the stuff.
Heck you can’t even draw depictions of the stuff on places where the public can see it. So you can’t put pornographic graffiti on your own damn wall.
We can already smell the horror in the air from all you pervs, haha!
But you probably don’t believe us, or at least you’re skeptical. So we’ll show you some proof.
We’ll begin with Article 21 of the 1992 Constitution which guarantees the right to free to speech and expression, and includes freedom of the press and the media. Article 162 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom and independence of the media, prohibits censorship of the media, and state control of editors and publishers (all subject, of course, to the other provisions of the Constitution).
Those are a bunch of technical-ish words. But the sum of what it all means is that within the confines of the law, media people can do whatever we want. Sounds good, right?
It gets better
Article 164 states very clearly that laws that are reasonably required in the interest of public morality may be enacted to limit the freedom of the press. So basically, a media platform – like a TV station – can do whatever they like, as long as they are not flouting laws enacted for the preservation of public morality.
So do we have any laws on public morality? Indeed we do!
A whole chapter (Chapter 7; Sections 273-284) of the Criminal Offences Act is dedicated to offences against public morality.
Under Section 280, anyone who publishes a book that gives “unnecessary prominence to indecent matter commits a misdemeanor.
Who said Makola romance? It’s like your mic is on, plis.
Under Section 281, anyone who even possesses pornographic materials, with the intent of publishing, distributing, carrying on a business…anything that even so much as involves showing it to another person commits a misdemeanor.
Wait…It gets better.
Under Section 282, you can draw or write anything obscene or indecent on anything for public viewing, not even your own wall. Section 283 says if you send someone to go and do it too, you’re also liable to be fined
So there you have it. Such a wonderful country we live in.
