Hong Kong - National Geographic, the magazine famous for providing schoolboys with their first glimpse of naked flesh, was banned Friday from sale to minors in Hong Kong. In what is believed to be a reaction to recent obscenity rulings in the former British colony, the latest edition of the magazine has gone on sale wrapped in clear plastic with a warning not to be sold to those under 18.
This article "may offend and should not be distributed, sold or lent to a person under the age of 18 years," it states.
The warning relates to four computer-generated images of naked Neanderthal men and women that accompany an article on a fossil discovery, a report in the South China Morning Post said.
The Hong Kong government said it had received no complaints about the magazine and it was the publisher's decision to wrap it and carry the warning.
But legislator Wong Yuk-man said the move highlighted the absurdity of the city's anti-pornography law and could harm Hong Kong's reputation as a free society.
The Taiwan publisher of National Geographic, Hai Xia Publishing Company, has not commented on the matter.
Hong Kong obscenity laws were tightened after a series of incidents involving magazines, one of which involved illicitly taken semi-naked pictures of Hong Kong pop star Gillian Chung in 2006.
Easy Finder magazine published sneak photographs taken backstage at a concert in Malaysia of Chung from the pop acts Twins as she changed clothes and stood wearing a bra.
Thousands of complaints were lodged with the police and the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority after the pictures appeared.
In 1995, Hong Kong's Obscene Articles Tribunal banned an advert using the image of Michelangelo's "David" because it showed genitals.
In another ruling, the tribunal ordered a cardboard fig leaf put on a statue called "New Man" by Elisabeth Frink, the South China Morning Post said.
