Trial explores line between obscenity and satire

A NICOSIA man has been charged with publishing obscenities in his monthly newspaper in what his defence team consider a violation of his right to satirise public figures.
Vassos Ftohopoulos, the owner and publisher of satirical Enosis newspaper, was charged with publishing obscenities about President Demetris Christofias, DISY MEP Ioannis Kasoulides, and a string of other deputies and public figures.
According to the charge the September 29, 2007 issue of Enosis was obscene to the extent that it could “corrupt” persons who read or a saw a copy of the paper. The offending articles were on the paper’s front page where there was a picture of man with the face of both (then-deputy) Christofias and Kasoulides behind a topless woman. The second allegedly obscene article was on page 11 where a sexual question was posed as the title and underneath a passport-sized photo of each deputy was their answer.
Police constable Andri Philippou told the court she had been assigned to investigate the case after a senior officer had written to the Attorney-general requesting clarification whether the publication contained obscenities and warranted criminal prosecution. The AG’s office replied that the publication was indeed obscene and to go ahead with the prosecution of the person responsible for publishing the articles.
During the cross-examination of the female constable, who subsequently charged Ftohopoulos, the defence team made no efforts to hide its surprise that the former deputy police chief, now the current police chief, had requested an investigation into the newspaper publication. Instead, the defence wondered if perhaps former Justice Minister Sophocles Sophcleous had a hand in ordering the investigation.
“Do you think the Sophocles Sophocleous called the deputy police chief and made a complaint,” the defence lawyer asked.
“I don’t know,” Philippou said.
Throughout the proceeding, Ftohopoulos leaned against the dock railing chewing a piece of gum. With his long, dishevelled hair and beard, the 59-year-old looked every bit the part of a satirist.
The defence team also questioned why officer Michalis Papageorgiou would show such an interest in a case that was considered a “minor crime”. However Philippou pointed out that as deputy chief of police, he showed an interest in all cases.
Nevertheless, the constable said she had received verbal instructions not to take a statement from the deputy police chief during her investigation or to take a statement from the senior officer who had written to the AG on the police force’s behalf.
Despite repeated questions as to what Philippou had found obscene about the offending articles on the paper’s front page and page 11, the officer kept going back to the AG’s ruling and how she had based her investigation and findings on Petros Clerides’ expert opinion.
The officer, who has served in the police force since 1994, said this case had been the first of its kind that she had ever investigated and to her knowledge no colleague had ever investigated a similar case.
The trial continues on February 8 and 11.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.