IN NEW SOUTH WALES, NO MORE “ARTISTIC MERIT” DEFENSE FOR CHILD PORN CHARGES
The New South Wales Government has announced that people charged with child pornography offences will no longer be able to claim the “artistic merit defense.” New South Wales attorney-general John Hatzistergos said the changes to the NSW Crimes Act would allow courts to better distinguish between child pornography and art, according to the Art Newspaper.
Lawmakers have been grappling with their response to the public furor that broke out in 2008 when the prominent Australian photographer Bill Henson exhibited pictures of naked children.
Police removed the photographs from the RoslynOxley9 gallery in the chic Sydney suburb of Paddington, following complaints. After validation of the photographs by the Classification Review Board, however, they were put back on display. However, only people who rang ahead to the gallery were granted access to the exhibition. Henson was not charged.
