Paparazzi-related articles

Watchdog investigates racy photos of activist


Anita Lam
Media watchdogs have received more than 110 complaints against a magazine in the past two days over the publication of racy pictures of a student activist.
The Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority has launched an investigation after the latest issue of Chinese-language magazine, Oriental Sunday, featured on its cover photographs of University of Hong Kong student Christina Chan Hau-man in a tight top and a thong in her Cheung Chau home.
The authority will determine if the photographs breached the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance. Most of the 111 complaints received by the authority and the Press Council since Tuesday concerned obscenity and indecency.
However, Obscene Articles Tribunal adjudicator Mervyn Cheung Man-ping said the pictures might pass scrutiny if they did not reveal the subject's private parts.
'It is unethical to publish such shots especially as they were taken of her inside her house. But it is more a question of an invasion of privacy than the pictures' obscene nature as Chan had her clothes on,' he said.
In 2006, the tribunal ruled as indecent a picture published by the now-defunct Easy Finder magazine that showed Canto-pop star Gillian Chung Yan-tung changing her clothes back stage at a concert.
The tribunal said that although the pictures exposed no intimate parts of the star, they were presented with text that was 'extremely detailed, graphic and provocative' and meant to be sexually arousing and pornographic.
Oriental Sunday, in the text accompanying the photos, said it acted on complaints by Cheung Chau residents who were shocked by the activist's wild behaviour.
But Chan said she never received nor ignored any complaints. She said the pictures were not recent and the story had forced her to consider moving. She plans to stage a protest outside the authority's offices today.
Oriental Sunday, which is owned by the New Media Group, did not comment last night.


Press Council condemns photos' publication



The Press Council yesterday condemned Oriental Sunday for publishing in January paparazzi photographs of student activist Christina Chan Hau-man in underwear at her Cheung Chau home. The council, which received 49 complaints over the photos, said they infringed her privacy and breached the code of practice. Oriental Sunday, owned by New Media Group, made no response to the judgment.