Women's rights activists said yesterday that the VCD given away by the Scoop Weekly allegedly depicting a sexual encounter between a former Taipei councilor and her married lover is a violation of privacy and human rights.
"Everybody says men and women should enjoy the same treatment. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the case in today's society," said Fan Yuan (范雲), a research assistant at Academic Sinica.
"To be honest, I am pretty disappointed with the media. How can they profit by violating human rights and reporting on a woman's private life like this?" Fan said. "It's the kind of behavior you'd expect from a tabloid."
"When the media make money selling information on somebody's private life, they inflict untold damage on the person," she added.
Chen Su-fan (
"I'm pretty open-minded so I'm not at all offended by pornography. However, I saw this [the VCD] as a violation of human rights as well as privacy," Chen said
"Without privacy, people will feel anxious and helpless."
Chang Ya-hui (張雅惠), secretary-general of the Peng Wang-ru Foundation, said that people must be careful not to encourage this kind of behavior by tabloids.
"Today, if I ask, `Do you know whether the Legislative Yuan has passed the elderly pension bill?' A lot of people won't know what the elderly pension bill is," Chang said.
"However, if you ask, `Do you know who Andy Lau's (劉德華) secret lover is?' I guarantee you will have the answer within seconds," she said.
Hsu Chai-ching, secretary-general of the Taiwan Women's Link, said action should be taken to discourage the dissemination of private information.
"I sincerely hope that we can work to protect human rights and privacy," Hsu said.
"We must begin by putting a stop to the publication of private information."
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