German gov't criminalizes upskirting, accident victim filming

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, November 14, 2019
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BERLIN, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- The German government on Wednesday introduced a law to improve privacy protection through stricter punishment of both upskirting and the filming of victims of accidents.

In the past, either upskirting or the taking of pictures underneath women's skirts without consent, was only punished as an administrative offense with victims being able to demand deletion of the pictures by suing the perpetrator.

The new, stricter law treated upskirting as a criminal offense because the production and transmission of a picture of the genitals, the buttocks, the female breast or the underwear covering these body parts were now punishable if the body parts were protected against sight.

"Photographing a woman under her skirt or in the neckline is a humiliating, unjustifiable violation of her privacy," said German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, adding that "often these photos are divided into chat groups or even commercially distributed."

With regards to photographing injured accident victims or even dead people, Lambrecht said that such action would be "disgusting and violates the basic rules of human decency."

According to the federal ministry of justice and consumer protection (BMJV), anyone who "produces or transmits" an image which shows a deceased person in a "grossly offensive manner" without authorization, could in future be punished by imprisonment of up to two years.

Until today, criminal law in Germany had only protected living people from degrading images. The images of people who died following traffic accidents or violent crimes were only considered a violation of the right of personality.

According to Lambrecht, this "gap" would be closed now, because of the need of relatives be spared of the "additional suffering of having pictures of their deceased parents or children spread." Enditem

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