M7 Signs Anti-pornography Bill Into Law

President Yoweri Museveni has signed the Anti-Pornography Bill into law, exactly two months to the day it was passed by Parliament on December 19.

Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo confirmed the presidential assent while addressing the media in Kampala today.

The Bill, first tabled in Parliament in 2011, was passed on December 19 last year, just a day before the House passed another controversial piece of legislation, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

The Anti-Pornography Bill creates the offence of pornography which is blamed for sexual crimes against women and children including rape, child molestation and incest.

It outlaws anything that shows sexual parts of a person such as breasts, thighs, buttocks or any behaviour intended to cause sexual excitement.

In the new law, pornography has been defined as any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual excitement.

During the passing of the Bill in December, legislators said pornography should be prohibited because of the dangers it poses to individuals, families and communities.

Stephen Tashobya, the Kajara County MP who also chairs the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, told the house then that it was necessary to pass a law to deal with the offence of pornography and derive the reform necessary to stamp pornography out of the Ugandan society.

The new law sets up the Pornography Control Committee, responsible for the implementation of the law and for taking necessary measures to ensure early detection and prohibition of pornography.

The Committee will also be charged with the collection and destruction of pornographic materials.