BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com was asked by Beijing's Internet self-discipline organization to make a public apology for spreading Hong Kong star Edison Chen's pornographic photos.

Photos supposedly showing Hong Kong actor and singer Edison Chen and several female stars naked in bed and in sexual poses became a hot topic among Internet users from late January onwards.

The Beijing Internet news information review council, initiated by government-sponsored Beijing Association of Online Media, issued a statement on Monday, criticizing the Nasdaq-listed website as being badly behaved during this event.

In the statement the association said "we severely criticize Baidu's behavior".

"'Key-words searching' and 'Tieba', a picture-sharing section of Baidu.com became a platform to show and spread the obscene pictures and Baidu failed to block the photos after other Beijing-based websites had taken actions against the pictures' spreading," said the statement.

A staff member, who refused to reveal her name, at Baidu's public affairs department said the company was asked to make an apology yesterday, however, the authorities haven't made decision yet.

"It's not convenient for us to comment at present," she told Xinhua.

The statement praised other big Chinese mainland websites, including Sohu.com, Sina.com and Netease, as they called for Internet users "not to download, save and spread the photos" and "to prevent the photos from falling into the hands of children".

"They have shown their conscience and responsibility," it said.

It also called on all websites in the Chinese mainland not to provide any excuse and technical support for the spread of pornographic photos, in a bid to create a clean, healthy, and civilized Internet environment.

The council, composed by government officials, website staff, experts and netizens, was initiated in 2006 as a self-disciplinary organization for Beijing websites and online information providers.

A total of 42 Beijing-based websites, including Baidu.com signed to accept supervision of the council.

China has laws and regulations prohibiting producing, publicizing, selling and spreading pornographic information through the internet. The Ministry of Public Security recently started a nationwide campaign to shut down websites and blogs carrying pornographic information lasting until September.

JINAN, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police have arrested two more men in a nationwide crackdown on the distribution of sexually explicit photos featuring Hong Kong entertainer Edison Chen, police in east China's Shandong Province said on Sunday.

Hong Kong police have been hunting for the first releaser of the photos and had made several arrests.

At least 13 people have been arrested on the Chinese mainland in connection with the photos. Chinese law prohibits the production, duplication, selling or circulation of pornographic products even without the purpose of making profit. Offenders can face detention of up to 15 days.

Ten people who allegedly produced, sold or bought computer discs of the photos were arrested in the southern city of Shenzhen in February, when police confiscated about 250 discs and six computers used to produce the discs.

An 11th person, surnamed Yu, was detained for 10 days in Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, on Feb. 22. He was found to have downloaded 260 photos on his computer and uploaded the photos to the album of his QQ space to attract other Internet users.

On Saturday, police in the central China province of Hunan sentenced two men to five days detention for disseminating the explicit photos on the Internet.

Last month, the Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com was asked by a Beijing Internet self-discipline organization to make a public apology for allowing the circulation of the photos.

A 25-year-old man surnamed Wei was arrested on Feb. 12 for allegedly uploading 1,174 shots featuring Chen with female celebrities on to a chat room of the instant messenger QQ.com for downloads, according to the Internet supervision police brigade in Zibo City.

Wei allegedly provided links to the chat room at cbbn.bbs, a popular on-line forum, to canvas interest. Wei was detained and is awaiting trial.

The Zibo police said Wei confessed that he obtained the photos from another person outside Shandong when the pictures started to leak out.

The other man, surnamed Li, was given a ten-day detention and fined 3,000 yuan (420 U.S. dollars) on Feb. 15 for uploading more than 180 copies of the photos to his personal space at QQ.com.

Police in Tai'an, in Shandong, said Li, 21, provided links and codes to access the photos through his web page to solicit visits to increase its popularity.

The photos, reportedly copied by a computer repair shop assistant from a faulty laptop believed to belong to Chen, began to appear on the Internet from Jan. 27.

On Feb. 21, Chen made a public apology and announced that he would quit the Hong Kong entertainment industry. He admitted most of the photos were taken by him. "These photos were very private and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone."

Marriage girlfriend to avoid triad wrath
Hong Kong singer-actor Edison Chen, who quit showbiz last week in the wake of the sex photo scandal fallout, had proposed to his girlfriend Vincy Yeung four times to try to dodge triad revenge, a Hollywood gossip website has reported.

Yeung, 19, is a university student in Boston in the US. Her uncle is chairman of the Emperor Group of companies.

She and Chen have been dating since 2004 and came out as a couple in 2006. He once said that he would marry her when he had earned US$20 million.

Some members of Yeung's triad family allegedly want Chen dead after explicit photographs of Edison with actresses and pop stars were plastered across the Internet over the past few weeks. But other members are trying to protect the Canadian-born actor, who went into hiding in Boston following the scandal.

A report in hollywoodgrind.com on Saturday said Chen had hoped that marrying Yeung would show that he has changed into a family man, and is no longer a sex maniac and womanizer.

But Yeung apparently turned down his marriage proposal after discussing the issue with her family.

Some earlier reports said Chen threatened to slit his wrists if Yeung did not marry him, but these have been denied by the actor.

The Hollywoodgrind report also said that Yeung's family had suggested to Chen that he seek treatment for his addiction to sex, which he did so.

He is said to have checked into a rehabilitation center in Utah, but left after a few days when he was attacked by several of the other male residents in the place in a parking lot during a break. The group of men threatened, kicked, and punched him. Edison left immediately and travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia to stay with his mother.

Chen then flew to California to meet movie executives in Hollywood to try and get work in upcoming movies. During this time, he started negotiating with police in Hong Kong to avoid prosecution, and for protection, before returning to former Crown colony.

He returned to Boston to see Yeung one last time before returning to Hong Kong last Thursday to face the media.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the scandal broke, Chen admitted taking the photos but said they had been stolen from him. Canadian-born Chen, 27, said he had returned to Hong Kong to account for himself.

“I would like now to apologize to all the people for all the suffering that has been caused and the problems that have arisen from this,” he said, reading a statement in English to a packed press conference.

“I would like to apologize to all the ladies and to all their families for any harm or hurt that they have been feeling. I am sorry,” he said.

The racy photos which purportedly show him in compromising positions with various celebrities, including Canto-pop star Gillian Chung, actress Cecilia Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan, were copied from Chen's computer when he sent it in for repairs.

"To all the young people in our community, let this be a lesson for you all. This is not an example to be set for you."
-edison cHen-

A sex scandal overseas

Edison Chen, the Hong Kong star at the centre of Asia's biggest celebrity internet sex scandal, has apologised for the suffering he has caused and says he intends to take an indefinite break from acting so that he can devote himself to charity work.

Hong Kong actor and pop icon Edison Chen is at the center of a media maelstrom that's being called China's biggest Internet sex scandal. Meanwhile, the 27-year-old star may be holed up in Boston, Forbes.com reported yesterday. The scandal erupted a few weeks ago when more than 1,000 sexually explicit images of Chen with some of Hong Kong's best-known starlets were swiped from his computer when he took it to a shop for repairs.

According to reports, Chen's photos show him with eight well-known women, including Maggie Q, Bobo Chan, and Cecelia Cheung and Gillian Chung of the pop duo the Twins. Perhaps best known to American audiences as a star of "Infernal Affairs," which Martin Scorsese remade here as "The Departed," Chen reportedly has a girlfriend who attends college in Boston. Chen's US representatives did not return calls yesterday. Considered one of Hong Kong's most likable and bankable stars before this controversy, Chen risks more than embarrassment. In addition to his thriving movie career, Chen has endorsement deals with Samsung Electronics, Pepsi, and Levi's, according to Forbes.com.

BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Netizens from about 40 websites have said they will not look at or pass on the hundreds of pornographic star photos which began circulating on the Internet during the Spring Festival and which have been dubbed Pornogate.

"Recently some racy photos of a Hong Kong singer-actor together with several actresses spread quickly on the Internet. They were viewed and downloaded by many netizens; they are beyond the acceptable limits of morality," read a declaration on the portal website Sohu.com.

"Hereby we call on each responsible netizen to 'end Pornogate' by deleting those photos, not downloading and not forwarding, so as to create a healthy online environment for children," said the declaration.

Dozens of other websites including Sina.com, Baidu.com, QQ.com, mediachina.net posted similar declarations. On Sina alone, about 2,000 netizens supported a posting from a netizen nicknamed Sanxia.

The Public Security Ministry launched a campaign from this January to September to clear porn from the Internet.

The Internet News and Information Review Council in Beijing on Monday asked China's major search website Baidu.com to make a public apology for its delayed reaction in blocking access to the photos.

"'Key-words searching' and 'Tieba', a picture-sharing section of Baidu.com, became a platform to show and spread the obscene pictures and Baidu failed to block the photos after other Beijing-based websites had taken actions against the pictures' spreading," said a statement issued by the council. One posting on the Tieba section of the Baidu website had attracted more than 500,000 clicks.

The incident aroused media frenzy from the end of January onwards, when the sex photos of Canadian-born rap singer and actor Edison Chen and starlet Gillian Chung were allegedly stolen from a faulty computer. They then spread rapidly on the Internet.

More celebrities were soon dragged into the scandal, including actress Cecilia Cheung, Hollywood actress Maggie Q and former actress Bobo Chan.

Hong Kong police made high-profile arrests of at least six suspects.

Edison Chen apologized in a video statement on Feb. 4, followed by Gillian Chung on Feb. 11, admitting that she had been "very naive and very silly".

The efforts, however, didn't seem to bring an end to the scandal.

Some people showed tolerance to the spreading the photos. "Such photos would be spread wherever they appear in the world. They could shoot the photos, why couldn't we spread them," said a netizen nicknamed Little Shrimp.

But Li Yinhe, a renowned sociologist and a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, expressed her worry. "Many people nowadays have the hobby of prying into others' privacy. We need to reflect on such vulgar and unhealthy interests."

China has the second largest population of internet users in the world -- 210 million by the end of 2007, among whom those aged between 18 and 24 accounted for 31.8 percent of the total and the group from 25 to 30 made up 18.1 percent.

A survey by the Shanghai University showed that 85 percent of the more than 100 primary school teachers polled and 73.4 percent of the 200 parents expressed anxiety about porn and violence on the Internet, but 56.8 percent of the teachers and 29.2 percent of the parents felt helpless in tackling the problem.

When "too obscene, too violent" has become the first catch phrase in the year 2008 in China, "the Pornogate scandal rings a warning bell for the Internet supervision department to beef up supervision," said a commentary on the southcn.com, "eliminating the obscene pictures is just the first step, and it will take a long time to create a healthy and harmonious online environment."

An official with the Beijing Qingdian Wanwei Telecommunication and Technology Co., Ltd was nabbed on Monday with three of his underling for uploading 28 obscene pictures last year, with a click rate of 250,000, according to a report of the Beijing Youth Daily.

"Because of the high click rate, they are likely to face more than ten years' jail," said the report.

The incident was also seen as a lesson for star-crazy youngsters.

Sports column writer Dong Lu posted an article on his blog, saying that "what fans of the stars should do is to smash their computers and common people, the idols".

"Thanks to Edison Chen and the scandal, although some actresses were hurt, they gave the society a valuable lesson...the fans should wake up and live their own lives."

His view was shared by a netizen nicknamed Haikuotiankong. "We should take this opportunity to educate our young people to see the stars in a correct way rather than deify and worship them blindly," he said. "those who died in the battle against snow disaster are our real idol.

Scandal boost popularity Edison Chen

Each twist and turn in the celebrity nude-photo scandal has Hong Kong agog. That young and attractive pop and movie stars are involved draws a natural audience, while the revealing nature of the images and the intrigue over how they were disseminated leaves many in the community eager for the next instalment.

What do you think of the nude photos scandal?

Perhaps the most extraordinary matter to come out of the nude photos affair were the comments from Principal Magistrate Kwok Wai-kin when he freed suspect Chung Yik-tin. According to the Post, the magistrate said: "Your action has been harmful. You have invaded the privacy and trampled the dignity of the celebrities, whose public image and possibly their careers may be affected as a result. What you did is morally outrageous."...

Man held for nude photos 'can seek damages' was released!!

The first man arrested for distributing nude photos on the internet could claim damages from the government after the Justice Department withdrew the charge and he was released after being detained for two weeks. ...

Who is Juno Mak?

Education

Before he started his music career, Juno attended Hong Kong International School.

Controversy

Coming from a wealthy family, Juno was involved in a scandal involving the popular Jade Solid Gold music TV programme and chart in 2003. The Hong Kong anti-corruption organization, the ICAC, was brought in to investigate Juno's father, Clement Mak, for bribing Jade Solid Gold to improve his son's chart positions and to win awards.Juno, his father and other industry figures including EEG chairman Albert Yeung were arrested at some stage.Juno Mak was booed when accepting the 2003 JSG award.It was also alleged Juno paid teenagers to act as his fans to give the impression he was more popular than he was.
Later on the president of Universal Music Limited, Chan Siu-Po, was arrested by the ICAC for accepting a bribe.
Juno Mak later reappeared as an artist of the small Silly Thing record company and has been trying to rebuild his career and image.

Juno Mak MARRIED Gillian Chung?

Rumours flew around the media yesterday that Gillian Chung and Juno Mak with whom she has been seen with since the scandal broke got married secretly.
A simple check at the marriage registry yielded no results and an interview with Gillian Chung’s manager revealed, “Stop kidding!”. It’s most likely another hoax once again.
A close friend of Gillian Chung revealed that she was not upset with the photos being leaked but more so at Edison Chen for apparently cheating on her while dating her.
“Gillian really loved Edison then and would do anything that he asked her. She thought she could hold on to him in this way.
You can imagine how hurt she felt when she saw the photos and realised she was being cheated on. It’s said that Edison loves to brag to his friends about the women he has conquered.”
Gillian has been meeting with lots of obstacles since returning to work. Twins were not on the list for an annual event hosted by a Hong Kong radio station even though they were regulars in previous years.
Their plans to tour Taiwan next week to promote their album has been put on hold.
She is however slated to appear in tonight’s TVB “Aid for Snow Storm Victims”event but the television station has received lots of complaints to stop her from appearing.