Blog Posts
Ripper Street’s extreme porn as tittilation
Danny Broderick over at Freedom in a Puritan Age describes how a new BBC television series, Ripper Street, broadcasts images that, in a different context, would be illegal even to possess. An important point emerges from this situation. It is clear that legislators didn’t really think that the availability of […]
Plebgate: blame the laws, not Mitchell or the police
A nasty sting to the incident that forced Andrew Mitchell to resign from the Cabinet was that he swore at a police officer, and that members of the public could easily expect to be arrested for such behaviour. By not being arrested on the spot, Mitchell was already being shown […]
Nichi Hodgson: Bound to Love
Nichi Hodgson’s real-life account of becoming a professional dominatrix, Bound to Love, is reviewed over at the F-word. It attempts to provide a realistic picture of BDSM to accompany the fictional account, Fifty Shades of Grey. It also challenges blanket conceptions of sex work as degrading and destructive to women’s […]
Myles Jackman on legal practice
Myles Jackman, who advises Backlash and blogs at Obscenity lawyer, discusses his legal practice in the Law Society Gazette. Chris Ashford, Reader in Law at the University of Sunderland, praises Jackman’s vocational approach to legal defence, which is informed by his previous career in film making and the media.
Banning sex work: the non-evidence base
Activists are gearing up a campaign to ban sex work in Scotland, with the explicit intention of protecting women engaging in sex work. Laura Lee has an enlightening account of the Conference Against Human Trafficking held in Glasgow. She was one of only two sex worker advocates to attend, and disagrees […]
Employment-based censorship
Via Sarah AB at Harry’s Place and BenSix, we learn of a case of a man being demoted for posting a comment on Facebook opposing gay marriage. There may be more details in the story that have gone unreported relating to something more justifiably akin to misconduct. But if this […]
Rowan Atkinson argues for Repeal of Section 5 of the Public Order Act
World-renowned actor and comedian, Rowan Atkinson, makes a humourous and strong case for repealing Section 5 of the Public Order act at a recent parliamentary reception. Section 5 of the UK’s Public Order Act 1986 has several parallels with the ban on extreme pornography. They permit prosecutions of harmless and […]
Backlash legal adviser Myles Jackman wins Junior Lawyer of the Year
Myles Jackman, a consultant at Hodge Jones Allen solicitors, has won the Law Society’s Junior Lawyer of the Year Award. He has successfully defended a number of individuals charged in obscenity and extreme pornography cases, several of whom initially sought Backlash for advice. The Law Society announced: ‘His work has […]
Olympic sex trafficking – How was it for you?
A salutory analysis of sex trafficking for the Olympics and the lasting damage evangelists caused. Much as the extreme images legislation was based on fiction not fact, another fashionable trope du jour blithely ignoring evidence – or lack of – does have real, on the ground, repercussions. “We are currently […]
Extreme Pornography: Legal Theory, Institutional Reality
We will not know the full significance, for legal practice, of the acquittal of Simon Walsh of possession of extreme pornography for some time. However, the way the case has unfolded allows us to challenge some of the claims made by academic legal theorists who either supported legislation banning possession […]