Author:
Natalie Hami
CIVIL society organisations expressed their ‘gratitude’ and ‘satisfaction’ over the Cyprus Media Complaint Commission’s (CMCC) decision over a recent ‘sex’ edition of the entertainment guide Time Out Cyprus.
“The Commission has adopted the position of the complainants that the publication seeks to normalise the sex industry,” said the results of their investigation, adding that they had also violated the journalist’s code of ethics.
The complaint was submitted by 12 non-governmental organisations including the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) who were up in arms over the publication that they felt not only objectified women but incited violence towards them.
At the time the organisations slung a host of accusations at the magazine including accusing them of ‘editorial recklessness’ and advertising women as commodities. They also demanded a public apology.
They also complained that the ‘Time Out May 2012 edition promotes and normalises through its content the sex industry in Cyprus, prostitution and acts associated with a host of criminal offences such as human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women.’
The special edition included ten pages dedicated to the topic of sex, with the first page listing five cabarets island-wide offering lap dances, topless dancing and strip shows. The issue provided details on cabaret addresses, contact details and drinks prices both for punters and the dancing girls, whose nationalities are also listed.
According to the Commission, despite the fact that the magazine itself did not seek to promote anything that was considered illegal, in practice they advertised places where it was known that trafficking of women takes place. They also said that in doing so they have violated the journalist’s code of ethics, that obligates the media to respect and ‘to promote the universal values….human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.’
In addition they consider that even though the magazine said that their intention was to cover ‘various legal areas of the sex culture in a non-judgemental way’ it appears that on the one hand they are trying to shake off their responsibilities, but on the other that it is clear they know that these places offer services by the women working there. “It would not simply be a naïve disregard of reality but hypocrisy to claim that the premises belonging in these categories are not involved in human trafficking,” they said.
The Commission also decided that the references to the national origin of women working in cabarets also constitutes a violation of the provision of the code of ethics for the prevention of discrimination on the grounds of, among other things, a person’s ethnic origin and gender.
Time Out was not available for immediate comment, however the magazine’s chief editor Sylia Ioannidou had previously commented saying that the response of the organisations was somewhat ‘puritanical’ noting that it was not the magazine’s job to provide a moral compass to society.