Release Date: Tuesday 2nd October 2007
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details:
Dr Sean Gabb (Libertarian Alliance Director), 07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk
Deborah Hyde (Backlash) 07960 171 951, info@backlash-uk.org.uk
Derek Cohen (Backlash) 07970 988 425

For other contact and link details, see the foot of this message
Release url: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr056.htm

LIBERTARIAN ALLIANCE JOINS DENUNCIATION OF WAR ON "VIOLENT" PORNOGRAPHY

With the full support of the Libertarian Alliance, Backlash’s Deborah Hyde will argue tonight that anti-porn laws ignore the evidence about the use and impact of pornography, infantilise women and bring legal systems into disrepute.

As part of the debate at Trinity College' Law Society in Dublin, Ms Hyde will criticise the British Government's new Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. This seeks to criminalise the possession of so-called and vaguely defined "extreme pornography".

She will say:

"When a government says there is no evidence a new law is needed, when there is no evidence of harm and when the purpose of the law is to tell MPs it’s OK to impose their own personal morality on the population, we need to be worried,"

She will add that the main proponents of current proposals use incendiary language and unproven, anecdotal evidence to try to justify the law. This language also denigrates law-abiding citizens who are harming no-one, limits their freedom and stigmatises their sexuality - all despite there being no evidence of harm to others.

Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance, says:

"It is no business of the authorities in a free country to police the imagination. If these proposals become law, they will be another weapon in the arsenal of the police state built up in this country since 1979. We stand wholeheartedly with Deborah Hyde and everyone in Backlash to oppose them."

The Libertarian Alliance believes:

• That what consenting adults do with each other on their own property is their own business;
• That if these consenting adults wish to publish any of this to other consenting adults, that also is their own business;
• That there should be no laws against the possession of any text or image, such laws being against the historic Constitution of England and being an excuse for an already corrupt police force to fabricate evidence;
• That the one legitimate function of the criminal justice system is to protect life and property..

END OF STATEMENT

Note(s) to Editors

Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance. His new book, Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How Conservatives Lost England, and How to Get It Back, is published on the 25th July 2007 and may be downloaded for free from http://tinyurl.com/34e2o3. His other books are available from Hampden Press at http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.

He can be contacted for further comment on 07956 472 199 or by email at sean@libertarian.co.uk

Extended Contact Details:

The Libertarian Alliance is Britain's most radical free market and civil liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms. These are freely available at http://www.libertarian.co.uk

Our postal address is

The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199

Associated Organisations

Backlash - http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk - is an ally of the Libertarian Alliance in opposing moves to censor explicitly sexual material.

The Libertarian International - http://www.libertarian.to - is a sister organisation to the Libertarian Alliance. Its mission is to coordinate various initiatives in the defence of individual liberty throughout the world.

Sean Gabb's personal website - http://www.seangabb.co.uk - contains about a million words of writings on themes interesting to libertarians and conservatives.

Hampden Press - http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.- the publishing house of the Libertarian Alliance.

Liberalia - http://www.liberalia.com - maintained by by LA Executive member Christian Michel, Liberalia publishes in-depth papers in French and English on libertarianism and free enterprise. It is a prime source of documentation on these issues for students and scholars.