Estonian court fines TV station for porn scene

TALLINN (BNS) - The Tallinn administrative court handed the television station TV3 with a 10,000 kroon ($599) fine for showing pornography in a live program on May 18.

The fine was for a violation of requirements laid down in the broadcasting law, but the TV station faces also criminal conviction, because the Tallinn police took action against TV3 on May 30. According to the Criminal Code, transmission of television or radio broadcasts of pornographic content is also punishable with a fine.

The police opened the case after a Culture Ministry committee established that the sequence concerned was pornographic.

It was clear to the ministry specialists who saw a video recording of the program that it was the most common pornography. Also, the women who took part in the show said they worked in a porn theater, Culture Ministry adviser Reet Weide-baum said.

"Pornography is permitted in Estonia, but the distribution and the showing of pornographic works must take place in so-called special establishments and must not be accessible to juveniles," she said.