LexisNexis Global

At what point, if any, should free speech be curtailed to prevent the promotion of pedophilia and human trafficking? That’s the issue raised by a proposed new film adaptation of a book by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The book, “Memories of My Melancholy Whores,” is a fictional account of a man’s decision to celebrate his 90^th birthday by having sex with a young virgin.

The decision to create a movie based on the book has resulted in a criminal complaint being filed with Mexico’s Attorney General by the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean. Group Sues in Mexico to Stop Garcia Marquez Movie (Associated Press, Oct. 7, 2009). The coalition argues that the movie would constitute a crime of promoting child prostitution.

Although a 21-year-old actress has been cast for the role of the virgin, and the movie’s producers contend her age will not be an issue in the movie, the coalition believes that the wider audience of movie attendees (and presumably television viewers of the movie at a later date) will encourage child prostitution in a way that a novel cannot.

Will the free speech rights and poetic licenses of the author and the movie’s producers be infringed upon if this movie is not made or is censored to avoid criminal liability? Absolutely. Should governments combating sex trade in minors take that extraordinary step to prevent the further defining of deviancy down through pop culture normalization of sex with children as an alternative lifestyle?

If the movie is not made (or the book not been published), will that save one child from being abused from by traffickers or molested by a pedophile? Or would these predators act regardless of what they see on the silver screen or read in a book?

Would it be okay to use a 21-year-old actress but have the movie portray her as 14? At what point is the line crossed between free speech and criminal culpability?

A more prudent approach would have been for the coalition to ask the movie producers to make it clear within the movie that child prostitution was wrong. If the producers refused the request, the coalition could picket movie screenings and raise public awareness of the issue in the process. Under this scenario, the free speech rights of all concerned would be preserved while conveying a public message that sex with minor children is unacceptable. Perhaps, if the author and film makers have any conscience and common sense about the issues involved, they would prefix the appropriate language version of the movie “Holly” be mandatorily shown prior to the start of Marquez story film.