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Cambodia charges foreigners with making pornographic images
Prosecutors in Cambodia have charged 10 foreigners, including five Britons, with producing pornographic images after raiding a villa in Siem Reap. They were arrested on Thursday after images emerged of people apparently imitating sexual positions at a party in the north-western town. If convicted, they face up to a year in prison.
Two Canadians held in Cambodia for 'dancing pornographically'
A police release included photos of multiple clothed men and women straddling one another on the floor, some in sexually suggestive positions. Those photos are said to have been shared on social media prior to the arrests.
[...] [Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow with the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank,] said the Cambodian government is grappling with pressure to enforce more conservative values, an agenda that is at odds with the country's party-oriented reputation among young western travellers. Foreigners dressed in skimpy clothing while visiting religious and historical monuments have been one source of tension. "Cambodian officials have been a little frustrated," Kurlantzick said. "Partly through their own fault, they allowed a certain very seedy sex tourism culture to take place in (the capital) Phnom Penh."
He said that while the arrests are "pretty unusual," travellers should be aware that the Cambodian government is increasingly lashing out against all types of foreign influence, including boisterous tourists. "The overall environment in Cambodia has just become much more repressed over the last year," Kurlantzick said. "The country is potentially something of a tinder box because of that."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crafoo on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:08PM (34 children)
Have some respect, you are guests in a foreign country. A year in prison seems a little harsh. If that's the standard applied to their own citizens then fine, so be it. You did the local crime now do the time. Maybe educate yourself next time and don't assume the world is your Disneyland playground.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:32PM
If you end up sitting for a year, you can take comfort in not joining their skull collection.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by sjames on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:37PM
It's more than a little harsh considering that the government there very much deliberately didn't enforce those laws for a considerable time exactly to create the impression that they were a destination for partying tourists doing exactly what these tourists did. Talk about a bait and switch!
Picture if the Saudi Arabia tourist board ran commercials for their gay beach paradise with pictures of couples guzzling mojitos and letting it ALL hang out.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:46PM (1 child)
I would agree with your admonishments if they knowingly were flaunting the law. Some things are clear violations of law in foreign countries, like theft. Some things might be uncertain, like public alcohol or drug consumption, so maybe you want to be careful or to check to see what the local laws are. Posing fully-clothed for pictures and having them seen by law enforcement on social media, well, that one wouldn't be raising too many reasonable red flags with most people. In this case I tend to be more sympathetic to the tourists.
It's gotta be a PR nightmare for the Cambodian Tourism agency, though.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:27PM
except they shouldn't have been so dumb to go to freaking cambodia!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:48PM (17 children)
What wasn't respectful? And why wasn't respect shown for the guests in question?
They can always change those standards.
Respect and standards are nice, but so is not spending a year in jail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @03:22PM (7 children)
it's not respectful to go to a country and not ask about their laws beforehand.
that being said, my first thought when I read about this was "ok, so some countries really are shitholes".
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:11PM (6 children)
So before you visit a country, you read their complete laws? Sounds like a lifetime task …
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:24PM (3 children)
That doesn't work as an argument for your own laws. You read your own laws where you live? Nope. Ignorance of the laws aren't an excuse and traveling to another jurisdiction puts you under the laws of that jurisdiction. That was a weak argument from a retard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:43PM (2 children)
You are an idiot. The law is complete bullshit just like the law somewhere where you can't spit a damn chewing gum on the gound (probably Saudis). The punishment is completely overboard.
Man, you are moron if you think laws of man are all acceptable.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:40PM
No one is arguing that the law is just and good. People are saying that ignorance of the law has never been a valid excuse unless you can sell it to the officer about to arrest you, after that you are in the system. Like it or not when you visit another country it is your responsibility to know the laws and stay out of trouble.
You want to stand up for your own version of justice? Go ahead, you have my thanks for being a martyr and hopefully exposing the shitty laws and having them removed.
This is how human society works, how can we possibly improve something as vast as societies laws? Currently we fight back and try to get bad laws repealed but it takes a long long time usually.
(Score: 3, Touché) by captain normal on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:41PM
Don't do that in Singapore.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:39PM (1 child)
Actually it's not very hard. All guide books give you information on laws and customs that should be honored when visiting foreign countries. Even airlines hand out information on the countries where you might be traveling to.
The U.S. State Department has pertinent information on virtually every country on the planet. https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country.html [state.gov]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday February 01 2018, @05:18AM
Including such surprising details such as that photos of fully clothed people can still be considered porn in that country?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @03:39PM (5 children)
Give me a fucking break, it's pure degeneracy. Just because our shithole countries tolerate this, doesn't mean other countries have to. What a bunch of coddled, dumb motherfuckers, have no idea what the world is, have no idea of what life is, nor respect, nor common decency. Their parents and wider society take blame as well, as they allowed these clowns to grow up in an environment where stupid stunts like this are considered "fun." Absolutely disgusting.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:41PM (1 child)
Today you learned that most people don't like Puritans. Take your repressive morality somewhere else kthxbye.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:59AM
The problem is that the puritans are winning. Sex will soon be taboo. Asking somebody out is a legal and career-ending risk for men.
The worst part is that it's the so-called liberals who are pushing for this. I'm not sure they understand that sexual repression generally doesn't work out well for women's liberation.
But hey, I'm just an observer on this planet, nothing more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:30AM (2 children)
amen. western morality is bankrupt. avarice, greed, nihilism, narcissism, pollution, all hallmarks of "progress".
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:41AM
Yeah, who needs advanced tech, who cares about curing diseases and creating bionic replacements? Who needs the internet, obviously it is only good for spreading this western degeneracy?? Who cares about all the westerners actually trying to help the rest of the world, let us focus instead on the negatives.
God how I wish I could live in Turdburkistan and oppress women while killing the infidels! Or shit, let me go to China where I would probably be jailed if I bothered to ever talk politics.
While the problems you mention are real, and some of them more pronounced in "the west", I still see those problems in other countries. Renewable energy? Who cares about that, we need to keep burning wood and coal for our obviously better pre-industrial lifestyle.
If you are serious about progress being bad then I say go rub elbows with a polio victim. If you are already vaccinated then I suggest you go live in a village without modern water treatment and get back to me about those intestinal parasites. Hopefully you don't get stoned as a witch/sorcerer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 01 2018, @02:00AM
Sure it is. If people acted nicely, there would be little need for morality systems in the first place. Western morality is no different in that respect than any other system. All morality systems have these things because that is how people are.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:29PM (2 children)
You really need to read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American [wikipedia.org]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 01 2018, @01:15AM (1 child)
Let us also remember that one of the points of tourism is to step outside the bounds of your normal life. Sorry, that's going to include sex tourism, which will happen somewhere. Sounds like Cambodia chose to host it so they'll need to deal with the consequences, such as the occasional moderately naughty pictures on Facebook. And having some experience with generic tourism, people act differently when they're on vacation and not surrounded by people they know. It's just the way it is.
Finally, ever consider that some people travel because their personality or psychological issues might keep them from settling down? The "ugly" people don't seem to collect around any particular nationality.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 01 2018, @02:55AM
And by that, I mean the attitude of the people portrayed in the books. After all, if your foreign policy is exclusively implemented by mean drunks with condescending attitudes to the locals, for example, it may be a little lacking. And the book sounds worth reading on its own merits, apparently predicting 60 years of US foreign policy blundering.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 31 2018, @05:48PM (6 children)
Maybe, but I think these countries have a responsibility to advertise themselves truthfully, and let tourists know that they're ultra-conservative places where they can get into serious legal trouble for doing things that are completely harmless and totally legal in any decent country.
I'll be sure to cross Cambodia off my to-visit list now. That's OK; I'm sure Thailand won't mind if I visit them instead, and while they do have their problems (don't insult their monarchy), they're pretty famous for being sexually liberal and not tossing people in jail for stupid stuff like this, such as middle eastern Islamic countries where tourists have gone to jail for extramarital sex (or even for being raped!).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:46PM (4 children)
Yes Thailand is better than Cambodia, but there is quite a conservative bent over there as well. Just be careful, I heard a story of someone being busted for drugs because someone asked them to watch their bag. No paranoia is enough sadly, tourists are a major target for scams even by the police. While I was there I heard another story of a group of college kids renting jetskis at a beach, turns out the renters were gang members and extorted them for a lot of money after threatening them with knives etc. The local cop by the beach did nothing, so rule of law can be quite tenuous.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 31 2018, @10:02PM (3 children)
Those stories could easily happen in Italy or the US...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @11:07PM (2 children)
Well in my travels through many countries and lots of the US; Cambodia sticks out as the worst experience yet. YMMV but that is my story and I'm sticking to it. The US has many other problems and I would not recommend someone travel here if only for the TSA.
I guess if you don't mind spending extra money on a dedicated driver with a nice car you could avoid a lot of the trouble, just get chauffeured and skip the riff-raff. Stick to the expensive shopping areas and high end resorts, get your driver and/or someone else to carry a bag around for you so locals know you already have all the help you need.
There is some amazing stuff, and I met a good handful of very nice locals, but I won't change my overall stance of never going back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:33AM (1 child)
the best advice I've heard yet for travellers to the US. Just Say No.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday February 02 2018, @01:23AM
That's fantastic advice. But some don't listen. So we're doing Extreme Vetting and a Travel Ban. To stop the Terror Tourism.
(Score: 1) by Crash on Thursday February 01 2018, @08:46AM
Considering that most Middle East countries *ban the usage and sale of alcohol, I think we'll stick to the Asian, Polynesian, African and European destinations.
*Alcohol is allowed in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Indonesia, India, Libya, and Kuwait.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:17PM (3 children)
Somehow, 'The law is the law.' doesn't seem very convincing. Perhaps it's because laws can be wrong, and no one - not even their citizens - should be subject to unjust laws. Ignoring such laws is actually a good thing. No one should be respectful to laws which violate basic liberties.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @08:21PM (2 children)
What gives you the right to go to another country and judge the laws that they have? Yes, laws can be wrong. However, laws are created by them, not you. The citizens of that land have decided how they want their culture to be, regardless of you fitting into that culture. If you don't like that, then don't go. Crying "foul" after the fact is just whining disguised as discourse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:34AM
Some laws are BAD...As an AMERICAN TEAR DOWN THOSE PRISON WALLS...
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Saturday February 03 2018, @04:17PM
I'm a human being and I can have an opinion. That is sufficient. Anyone can judge anything.
Now let's move on to the next bit of authoritarian propaganda.
Unless they are significantly democratic (not even the US is, by the way), then no.
Furthermore, the majority should not be able to infringe upon people's fundamental rights, so it doesn't even matter if the country is democratic or not. Would you accept slavery if a majority agreed with it? Would you tell people to stop whining? It's the same awful logic. You're defending human rights abuses just because the majority might want them in some cases. If a majority wants human rights taken away, then I think the majority should be opposed.
That whining is completely valid when human rights are at stake. If that society doesn't care about human rights, then I believe they should be opposed by everyone and encouraged to improve.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday January 31 2018, @06:21PM
Exactly. If you're British, and in a developing nation, your primary focus should be on colonizing it, bringing up its technology level, and maybe converting a few percent of the population to, uh, Episcopalianism?
Seriously, kids nowadays, am I right? No respect for the Empire or what it stands for.