Zola welcomes child porn ruling

2003-10-17 18:46

Pretoria - Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya on Friday welcomed the Constitutional Court's ruling that the possession of child pornography without a permit was a crime.

Skweyiya in a statement called on all South Africans to make sure that children were protected against negative exposures that could affect their morals and values.

"This decision will go a long way in further strengthening government and society's efforts to protect children and enhance their socio-economic rights as enshrined in the Constitution and help develop moral values among children that will consolidate the moral regeneration programme of our society.

"The protection of children against exploitation should go along with positive communication that will enhance the growth of our children into better citizens of tomorrow," he said.

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday dismissed an application by Tasco Luc De Reuck to strike down sections of the Films and Publications Act making it an offence to possess child pornography without a permit, even for researchers.

De Reuck is currently on trial in the Randburg Regional Court on charges related to possessing child pornography, which he said he had collected in order to make a documentary on paedophiles.

Deputy Chief Justice Pius Langa said in his judgment that outlawing child pornography was a justifiable limit on the rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

"The purpose of the legislation is to curb child pornography, which is seen as an evil in all democratic societies.

"Child pornography is universally condemned for good reason. It strikes at the dignity of children, it is harmful to children who are used in its production ,and it is potentially harmful because of the attitude to child sex that it fosters and the use to which it can be put in grooming children to engage in sexual conduct," Langa said.

Legitimate purpose

Turning to De Reuck's defence that researchers and film producers such as himself had a legitimate purpose in possessing the material, Langa said that such defences would have to be disproved by the State beyond a reasonable doubt.

"This may entail proving that the accused had an 'unhealthy interest' in the images ...It may be very difficult to establish this. The result of a 'legitimate purpose' defence would then be that people may exploit the defence as a cover. Such persons pose a reasonable risk of harm" (to children)," Langa added.

De Reuck, who was present when Justice Kate O'Regan handed down the ruling, said he was very disappointed, but accepted the judgment.

He had already asked his legal team, Advocate Kobus van Rooyen, SC, and attorney Barry Sim to retrospectively ask for a permit under section 22 of the Films and Publications Act to continue his research and produce the documentary.

Sim said his client was an "acclaimed bone fide film producer" and the law as well as the Constitutional Court ruling allowed them to apply after the fact.

Ironically, Van Rooyen was the main author of the current Act and was widely regarded as the chief state censor under the previous dispensation.

- SAPA