Oiwan Lam, a Hong Kong-based blogger (and Northern Asia editor for the Global Voices project) was charged with obscenity for linking to (linking, mind you, not posting) a Flickr photograph of an art nude (now available here) on a InMediaHongKong, a citizen journalism site. Read more on Oiwan’s blog, Oiwan’s notebook. Oiwan did this to test an archaic and restrictive “obscenity” law. The photo was within the legal limit, technically. But the authorities, specifically the Obscene Articles Tribunal, seek to apparently prosecute anyway. (More on the background and specifics in this post and on GV.)

In a note to us, Oiwan said:

(I) am still exchanging letters with the Obscene Articles Tribunal. They so far failed to provide me information on the interim classification (they insisted the classification is a closed-door meeting). Since there are two other cases going through judicial review of OAT’s procedure, hopefully their cases can back up my case.