Today Ireland's Justice Committee is to start hearings on prostitution legislation. You can watch online, they are taking place in Committee Room 2 from 2 p.m. G.M.T. onwards. All of the organisations invited are members of anti-sex work coalition Turn Off the Red Light (TORL). TORL initially announced the news of these hearings last month, saying they are hopeful the new law they are advocating for will be enacted before the new year. It was only yesterday in a press release the Justice Committee stated today's hearing will be the first, giving some hope that there may be further hearings at a later date which will include sex workers.
Also today a letter written by a sex worker and sent to the Justice Committee last month has come to light. We are republishing this letter below (personal details removed). If you have a blog of your own, please consider re-publishing this letter also. Sex workers need to be heard.
Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) has hit out at their UK counterparts for to impose a ban on internet pornography.
The ISPAI branded UK service providers’ decision to ban the sites as “nothing less than censorship”.
Under a new scheme introduced last year aimed at protecting children from explicit sexual material online, subscribers to four of the UK’s biggest internet service providers now have to ‘opt in’ if they want to view sexually explicit websites.
The ISPAI heavily criticised the move, saying it is up to parents to moderate what their children are able to access online.
Read more here