Child Porn and Castration in the Czech Republic

Having a Czech ancestry and being curious about Czech history and modern culture I signed up to get email updates from Radio Praha. A couple news items I got a few days ago seemed to be of enough significance to share with y'all.

Czech senate decides against criminalising possession of child porn

• The Czech Senate has decided against making the possession of child pornography a criminal offence. Discussing an amendment to the law on pornography passed by the lower house, senators agreed that only people who produce or sell child porn or who make it available should be punished, but not those who just own it, as such a measure could be easily misused by third parties to get others into trouble.
  One senator expressed concern that even an unsolicited email could result in a person being prosecuted under the proposed new child porn legislation. One of the authors of the amendment, Communist MP Milan Bicik has criticised the senators' reservations, saying that they were unfounded and that the legislation only targeted those who knowingly possessed pornographic images of children. The bill has now been sent back to the lower house of parliament for another reading.

Ya know what, I hate to admit it, but I am going to have to agree with the Commies on this. What is going on in the minds of those who posses it is just the same as those who produce, sell or make it available. Maybe even more so. Perhaps the people making it available are not all pedophiles, they could just be marketing to pedophiles. Obviously if someone purchases or downloads it they are definitely pedophiles. I am not making excuses for those making it, whether or not they are pedophiles they are just as disgusting as those possessing it. I think they should all be punished equally.

As for unsolicited email, I may not be all the technology savvy, but I do know not to open up suspicious email. So if a person open up suspicious email they must be interested in the child porn.

Now for the next article of interest.

Czech sexologists defend castration practises

• The Czech government and sexologists have rejected criticism from the Council of Europe regarding the practise of castrating some sex offenders in this country. The Council's Committee for the Prevention of Torture has criticised the policy of allowing some sex offenders to choose between surgical castration or confinement for life in a psychiatric facility. Leading Czech sexologists have defended the practise, saying that castration is only carried out with the prisoner's consent and that it has drastically reduced re-offending. The Committee for the Prevention of Torture maintains that consent to castration can hardly be considered free if the alternative for the prisoner is indefinite confinement in a psychiatric hospital.

Again, I don't see anything wrong with this. I have been saying for years that we need similar laws here. While I know we have the same 2 above problems here in US and we should focus mostly on the US I think these things are important issues. Whether it be in the U.S., Europe or anywhere else. I think both these things are a good turn from the stereotypes some Americans have about sex in Central and Eastern Europe. Probably it is more important to know how the Czech people and officials feel about Missile Defense Shields in their area feel. I will get to that in later posts.