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After activist Gina Martin campaigned for 'upskirting' to become illegal in England this year, Ireland looks set to follow suit.

According to the Journal, revenge porn is to be outlawed under new amendments to legislation which are expected to be approved by Cabinet.

Upskirting takes place when a person takes a photograph under the clothes of another without consent being granted. The changes in the legislation will also provide for a separate offence to punish those involved in this image-based crime.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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When upskirting in the UK was officially criminalised this February, Gina Martin posted;

"18 months ago a man stuck his hand between my legs and took photos of my crotch without my consent. 18 months ago I decided I wasn't going to brush sexual assault off anymore. 18 months ago I discovered it wasn't sexual offence and decided I was going to try and change the law for all of us." 

Now, it's Ireland's turn. The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill, which provides for a six-month prison sentence when a person is convicted, was put forward back in 2017 and is based on a Law Reform Commission report.

The report recommends the outlawing of two kinds of incidents: one which forbids the posting online of explicit images without consent, the other which will prevent secretly filming or photographing people in a sexualised manner without consent, i.e. ‘upskirting’ and ‘down-blousing’.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan will seek government approval today to draft amendments to the Bill.

'Revenge porn' laws in Ireland mark us out as regressive and archaic, and Labour leader Brendan Howlin agrees. 

Howlin has previously said one of the aspects of the digital age is the increase in occasions where private images taken while in an intimate relationship are posted online following a break-up.

“They use images gathered during that relationship to harm their former partner by posting intimate, lewd images that were meant for an intimate couple online. It is totally unacceptable,” he said. New Zealand, Australia and now the UK have laws ahead of ours.

The legislative move comes just a few months after gardaí were informed by more than two women that their explicit photographs have been posted online without their consent. 

The forum on Reddit which displayed nude and clothed images of Irish women, called 'Irish Sluts', shared without their consent was later shut down

Harassment offences will now include any form of communication, including digital and online comments about another person.

Social media and technology laws are in dire need of modernising, and existing regulation must be brought up to date regarding activities on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram messenger and Whatsapp.

Image credit: theconversation.com

The existing offence of sending threatening or indecent messages will now expand to include all obscene messages using any form of digital communication.

The specific offence of stalking (in the 1997 Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act) will also be referred to under the new laws.

The Office of Parliamentary Counsel will start drafting the government amendments to the Bill in order for it to advance to Committee Stage in the Dáil soon.

We, for one, are absolutely delighted. It's been a long time coming.

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 A 'Rats Out of the HSE' protest took place today outside the Department of Health's office in Dublin, following a leak of patient information.

The woman had legally obtained an abortion, but was then phoned and harassed by anti-abortion groups, according to TheJournal.ie

The protesters were calling for better protection of confidential patient information and for an external investigation to be launched after last week's data breaches.

Roughly 12 people took part in the protest at lunchtime, carrying placards and holding cut-out rat masks at Miesian Plaza.

A number of investigations were launched last week into the shocking claims.

A woman had an abortion at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, otherwise known as Holles Street, and was later verbally abused over the phone by a man who had somehow obtained her personal information.

On Friday, anti-abortion protesters stated that they were given information on when abortions were scheduled to occur at Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

Councillor Éilis Ryan of The Workers’ Party has said the HSE needed to clearly explain the steps it had taken to ensure that staff were providing abortion services in a trustworthy, fair and transparent manner.

"It doesn’t seem that any thought was put into how to change the culture of our hospitals to ensure people who might have anti-choice feelings themselves are not biased in how they carry out their healthcare provision”.

Her worry regarding the ability of our healthcare services to adapt without bias is felt by many.

Health Minister Simon Harris has admitted that an internal probe will take place, but “given the scale of scandals linking to the HSE in recent years we don’t feel that an internal investigation can be trusted or is sufficient”, according to Ryan.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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She feels that Gabriel Scally is trustworthy, after he carried out the Cervical Check screening programme review.

Simon Harris said on Friday  that it was “extraordinarily concerning and disturbing” that a patient’s details of her own abortion could possibly become public.

"The idea that anybody might leak a woman’s confidential information is reprehensible, it is grotesque, it’s disgusting and that is why I asked the HSE yesterday to investigate the matter and report back."

The HSE, the Dublin Well Woman Clinic, the National Maternity Hospital and the Data Protection Commissioner are apparently making inquiries regarding the apparent incident. 

Cover image: Twitter/@michelledevane

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Iconic singer Kylie Minogue has been left 'very shaken' after a man refused to leave her London home, and launched 'sustained campaign' of harassment, The Sun reported.  

Following a complaint by the singer, the man has been issued with a harassment warning. Police were called to a house in Chelsea and Kensington on January 23, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The mystery man reportedly asked her neighbours where the 50-year-old singer lived, and then pressed the intercom, refusing to leave. Security has since been increased at her West London house as a result.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue) on

The man, who is in his 40s, was lurking around her home for days, and her neighbours spotted him a number of times requesting to know where Kylie lives.

A nearby resident in West London said: "It came to a head when the man repeatedly pressed the intercom button to her home for hours on end last week and refused to leave." 

The resident continued; "Kylie was quite upset and called in police. They spoke to Kylie, and also the suspect in the street for quite a while." She has taken 'sensible steps' to stop this from happening again.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue) on

Another neighbour said: "A weirdo guy was lurking around. He went door to door asking people where Kylie lived."  The man repeated the singer's name again and again, in a disturbing manner.

The apparent stalker was described as wearing a raincoat and possessing a European accent.

The star suffered another security issue a few months ago when a man made threats against her before her German performance in November.

She was then guarded by 20 police officers who were armed at her next concert in Belgium. Images of the suspect were plastered around the venue and all male concert-goers were frisked heavily.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue) on

Kylie as been seen enjoying her West London neighbourhood with her boyfriend, Paul Solomons. The 43-year-old is the creative director at British GQ and GQ Style magazine, and the pair went public last summer.

The singer was previously engaged to British actor Joshua Sasse, but they parted ways in February 2017. Kylie achieved her sixth UK number one last year when Golden reached the number one spot.

A number of celebrities have been plagued by stalkers and have been forced to hire extra protection or relocate, such as Tom Hardy and his wife Charlotte Riley, Noel Edmonds and Christine Lampard.

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A man accused of harassing Sharon Ní Bheoláin on several occasions will face trial next year.

The 40-year-old Portmarnock resident will appear in court charged with harassing the RTÉ News anchor at various locations between October 2013 to February 2014.

It's understood that the man, named as Conor O'Hora, is also being charged with possession of child pornography in text communications and images.

Mr O'Hora appeared before the district court in Dublin earlier this month where he was served with a book of evidence.

His case was then sent to the higher Circuit Criminal Court.

According to The Irish Times, at the defendant’s first appearance, the district court heard “in reply to the charge after caution the accused had nothing to say and was handed a copy of the three charges”.

The case is due back before the courts on February the 20th where Mr O’Hora will enter his plea on the three charges.

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Following the allegations levelled at Harvey Weinstein in recent days, more and more men and women within Hollywood have come forward with their own experiences of sexual harassment and molestation, and Blake Lively is the latest in a brave list.

Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, the actress reveals she fell victim to harassment at the hands of a make-up artist whose conduct ultimately resulted in his dismissal.

After explaining that he said 'inappropriate things' to her and insisted on applying Blake's lipstick with his fingers, the 30-year-old actress said the situation intensified even further in the days that followed.

“I was sleeping one night on location and I woke up and he was filming me,” she revealed, “I was clothed, but it was a very voyeuristic, terrifying thing to do.”

Despite approaching the production team with her concerns and openly communicating her discomfort, no action was taken against the make-up artist until Blake took her sexual harassment complains to an attorney.

Following an investigation, the make-up artist was removed from the project, but not before being given a good reference by the production team.

"Our unit production manager wrote him a letter of recommendation because nobody wanted there to be bad blood," Blake explained.

It's understood that the make-up artist is still an active member of the industry.

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“Looking good, love!”

“Cheer up, it might never happen!”

It's a sad fact, but most women are subjected to some kind of sexual harassment on a regular basis. It can come in many forms, but the one that is doubtless the most common is on-street catcalling.

Most of the time we can just laugh it off, but sometimes being shouted or whistled at in the street can feel more than a little intimidating. Whether you're walking alone or in a group, there is nothing pleasant about being singled out by a stranger while on the street. Far from feeling like a compliment, it can feel downright creepy… as well as just being plain annoying.

Although women really should not be the ones blamed for being harassed in public, one of the questions most commonly asked of someone who complains about being catcalled is, “Well, what were you wearing?”

Yes, it’s a logical question in some ways – if you’ve ever walked to the bus stop while dressed up for a night on the town, you’ve probably braced yourself for whistles and beeps more than you normally would. But making an assumption that a woman was harassed simply because she was wearing a short skirt is not the way to approach the problem.

Blogger Kati Heng was tired of being questioned about her clothes any time she (rightly) complained about unwanted attention from men in public, and so she started a Tumblr page encouraging people to “to get over the question ‘what were you wearing?’ and just listen to our stories.”

Users have used the Tumblr page to share their own experiences of public harassment, along with pictures of what they were wearing at the time. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad, but they all drive home the fact that us women are not the ones to blame for sexual harassment.

Quotes like, "I told him to leave me alone and he told me I 'couldn’t have been ruder to him.'", "I felt beautiful when I put [the dress] on, but by the end of the night, I felt paranoid, nauseous, and filthy." and "I immediately rolled my window down and burst into tears" show that catcalling is far from just a bit of "fun."

While small projects like the But What Was She Wearing page might not be enough to stop sexual harassment, they do a lot to raise awareness and to re-align some of the blame. The problem is not what we look like or what we wear, ladies. The problem is not us – but we can be part of the solution.

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