http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/14/ap/europe/main5158317.shtml
Quote(AP) Lithuania's Parliament on Tuesday approved a censorship bill that aims to keep information about homosexuality away from children, angering gay rights activists who called the measure homophobic.
Vowing to defend family values in the predominantly Catholic nation, lawmakers overturned a presidential veto on the legislation, which bans publicly disseminating material deemed harmful to the mental health and "intellectual or moral development" of minors.
The measure lists 19 examples of "detrimental" information, including material that "agitates for homosexual, bisexual, and polygamous relations," instructions on how to make explosives and graphic depictions of violence or death.
It also bars information that gives credence to paranormal phenomena, hypnosis or "promotes bad eating."
While critics said the text violated the freedom of speech and international standards of human rights, others said the vague wording would make it difficult to enforce.
The text does not define "public information" in detail, though it makes references to TV programs, films, computer games and advertising as well as online and print media accessible by children.
"This is absurd. I cannot even imagine how they will implement this law," said Dainius Radzevicius, chairman of the Lithuanian Journalists Union.
Lithuania's former president rejected the bill before he left office last week, but lawmakers voted 87-6 on Tuesday to override his veto. Forty-eight lawmakers either abstained or were absent in the 141-member legislature.
It takes effect after the new president, Dalia Grybauskaite, signs it into law, which she is required to do within three days.
Supporters said the measure was necessary to defend traditional family values in the former Soviet republic of 3.4 million people, which joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.
"We have finally taken a step which will help Lithuania raise healthy and mentally sound generations unaffected by the rotten culture that is now overwhelming them," said Petras Grazulis, a lawmaker who co-sponsored the bill.
Grazulis, of the right-wing populist Order and Justice Party, is also seeking a total ban of homosexuality in the Baltic country.
Intolerance toward sexual minorities remains strong in many former communist countries in Eastern Europe _ not least in the Baltic region.
Lithuania has repeatedly banned gay pride parades. In neighboring Latvia, the annual gay pride parade draws twice as many protesters as supporters. In 2006, gay rights activists in Latvia's capital, Riga, were pelted with feces, eggs and insults as police stood idly by.
Boris Dittrich, an advocacy director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, urged gay and lesbians in Lithuania to challenge the so-called "Law on the Protection of Minors" in court.
"The idea behinds this law is quite homophobic," he said. "It's a violation of international human rights standards."
The new bill amends an earlier censorship law that didn't contain any references to homosexuals. It also steps up pressure on the state ethics panel tasked with reviewing questionable content to punish violators with fines, which can be challenged in court.
The text says the nature of the content must be balanced against its "scientific or artistic value" or whether there is a public interest in making it broadly available.
<Neil>
Ignorant Yanks. Neither Lithuanians nor homosexuals are fully human, Human Rights does not apply here.
</Neil>
Another victory for heterosexuality. The battle has been taken to the borders of the enemy homeland. Final victory will soon be achieved.
The quality of Marti's posts has become known.
QuoteIt also bars information that gives credence to paranormal phenomena
They're banning the Bible!?
Cockmeat sandwiches killed in one fell swoop.
This is pretty fucked up, especially for a country in the EU.
Essentially, this means that if a bullied gay kid goes to a school nurse or the principal and they tell him anything but that his homosexuality is a disease/deviation, they can go to prison for 3 years.
Quotematerial deemed harmful to the mental health
How delightfully totalitarian.
On the other hand, maybe they have a major outbreak of Cthulhu cultists.
Quote from: Neil on July 14, 2009, 04:53:40 PM
Another victory for heterosexuality. The battle has been taken to the borders of the enemy homeland. Final victory will soon be achieved.
Fuck you. I'm really getting tired of your trolls. I hope you get balls cancer, so you don't breed.
I think this means Lithuania is worse than Russia, and that's pretty bad.
The Baltics are a really nasty place. It's like a mix of the worst qualities of the Eastern Europe/Russia and revisionist Nazi-sympathisers.
They make Poland look positively European.
Quote from: Martinus on July 15, 2009, 12:37:14 AM
The Baltics are a really nasty place. It's like a mix of the worst qualities of the Eastern Europe/Russia and revisionist Nazi-sympathisers.
They make Poland look positively European.
Poland is European. That's part of the problem.
Quote from: Martinus on July 15, 2009, 12:24:44 AM
This is pretty fucked up, especially for a country in the EU.
Essentially, this means that if a bullied gay kid goes to a school nurse or the principal and they tell him anything but that his homosexuality is a disease/deviation, they can go to prison for 3 years.
Well it is a mental disorder.
Quote from: Razgovory on July 15, 2009, 01:11:59 AM
Quote from: Martinus on July 15, 2009, 12:24:44 AM
This is pretty fucked up, especially for a country in the EU.
Essentially, this means that if a bullied gay kid goes to a school nurse or the principal and they tell him anything but that his homosexuality is a disease/deviation, they can go to prison for 3 years.
Well it is a mental disorder.
No, it's not. Unlike whatever that is that you are suffering from.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mental+illness
Quoteany of various disorders in which a person's thoughts, emotions, or behaviour are so abnormal as to cause suffering to himself, herself, or other people
Your disorder is so abnormal that it causes you to in the closet and causes you suffering and causes you to rant about here causing us suffering.
It's as if the editorial board of the Daily Mail had taken over Lithuania :huh:
Quotestate ethics panel
:bleeding:
If we let such countries into the EU I don't see why we can't let Turkey in, really.
Quote from: Syt on July 15, 2009, 05:53:47 AM
Quotestate ethics panel
:bleeding:
If we let such countries into the EU I don't see why we can't let Turkey in, really.
Most countries have some sort of government ethics body. In Canada, it is the Auditor General. The US has a number of inspectors under the Office of Government Ethics.
Quote from: Martinus on July 15, 2009, 12:24:44 AM
This is pretty fucked up, especially for a country in the EU.
Essentially, this means that if a bullied gay kid goes to a school nurse or the principal and they tell him anything but that his homosexuality is a disease/deviation, they can go to prison for 3 years.
Why lie to the kid?