Photojournalist Go Takayama Released From Cambodian Prison; Charges Dropped

 

By Donald R. Winslow
© 2010 News Photographer magazine

 

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA (December 7, 2010) – Photojournalist Go Takayama, 28, who has been held in a Cambodian jail since November 23 on charges that he was producing pornographic pictures while he was taking part in a renown photojournalism workshop, today was released after a provincial court acquitted him of all charges during a hearing this morning. The development comes after a high-ranking Cambodian government Minister spoke out yesterday on the photographer's behalf.

Cambodian Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith, a former newspaper editor who knows what the inside of a Cambodian prison is like from personal experience, told News Photographer magazine from Phnom Penh that he was convinced of Takayama's innocence and that he was sending a formal letter to the court requesting the photographer's release.

Provincial prosecutor Ty Soveinthal told The Phnom Penh Post yesterday that Kanharith had intervened on Takayama's behalf, and that the photographer and the married couple who were arrested along with Takayama would likely be released Tuesday following a hearing at a provincial court.

At the hearing today, judge Sok Leng said that based on the evidence and statements, Takayama and the married couple he was photographing who were arrested along with him were not guilty of the pornography charges police had brought against them. The judge also said Takayama would receive his camera, memory card, and the photographs back from police.

"We have found his mistake was very minor," Soveinthal told the newspaper, "and he was supported by His Excellency Khieu Kanharith." Cambodia's Minister of Information told the Post that he had received many messages from Cambodian journalists trained in the U.S. who affirmed Takayama's innocence. "I also checked his blog and understood the nature of his art," Kanharith said.

"I have concluded my investigation of the Japanese photographer, and I think his punishment should be very minor and he should not be jailed in Cambodia," Soveinthal told the newspaper.

After his client was released, Takayama's lawyer, Mr. Sourng Sophea, said "The court gave us justice today."

Kanharith's interest in Takayama's case most likely had a significant impact on the court's view of the photographer's actions. The high-ranking Cambodian Minister had been imprisoned himself in 1990 when he was suspected of "dissident activities," but in 1991 Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen asked Kanharith to serve as his advisor and in 1992 the former journalist was promoted to Minister of Information.

Photojournalist Takayama had been been jailed in Siem Reap after taking pictures for a story he was working while participating in the Angkor Photo Workshops.

After photographing a married couple inside a home on the evening of November 23, the photographer was stopped on the street by plain clothes police and detained until additional officers arrived, Angkor Photo Workshop organizer Jessica Lim told News Photographer magazine.

The police confiscated his camera along with 78 photographs from his memory card, which were admitted as evidence in an accusation charging Takayama with producing pornographic content. He had been under arrest and in prison since that night.

Lim said the photographs were not pornographic. "They depict a married couple hugging and holding each other. Although there was never any nudity, the man had his shirt off and halfway through the shoot the woman took her blouse off as well. The man had on shorts and the woman had on trousers throughout the entire shoot and there was no explicit sexual activity."

Lim said that Takayama arrived in Siem Reap on November 17, one day before the start of the Angkor Photo Workshops were to begin, and he intended to leave when the festival concluded. A visual communications and political science graduate of Ohio University, Takayama is a frequent participant in photojournalism workshops. Lim says Takayama has participated in the Missouri Photo Workshop (2009), American Diversity Project (2008), Truth With A Camera Workshop (2008), the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar (2007), NPPA's 50th annual Flying Short Course (2007), and the VII Photo Seminar (2006). The photojournalist interned at the Evansville Courier & Press and at the Patuxent Publishing Company.

On the strength of his portfolio, Takayama was admitted to the Angkor Photo Workshops, an annual free workshop organized for young and talented Asian photographers, Lim said. During the workshop each participant has to develop a project and shoot a photographic essay. Takayama was one of 31 participants from 14 Asian countries in this year's Angkor event.

For his project, Takayama researched a Cambodian folk tale known as the "Seven Color Princess," Lim said. To illustrate the various aspects of the lore, a narrative about a princess and a crocodile, Takayama had already photographed several other people in various situations, including subjects at a crocodile farm, a floating market, Tonle Sap lake, a boxing match in a Pagoda, and a traditional Khmer wedding. Lim said Takayama had shot more than 1,400 photographs on his essay's theme, and some of the photographs are pictures of places that do not have people in them.

One component of the folk tale is the idea of "strong, possessive love," Lim said. In the tale, when the crocodile finds out the princess is planning to leave him to marry another, the crocodile eats the princess so that she will remain with him forever. To illustrate this part of the story, Lim said, Takayama decided to show strong, possessive love demonstrated between two people. To do so, he was photographing a married couple, with their permission, who knew the context of the story he was trying to illustrate for the workshop.

"No explicit sexual activity took place during the shoot," Lim told News Photographer magazine. She said the couple were photographed hugging and kissing "in a romantic light."

When the photographer was stopped by police, Lim says, he and the couple were asked to accompany officers to a police station. There the photographer was charged with producing pornography for the purpose of distributing pornographic content.

 

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