JP/7/Unpad

Yuli Trisuwarni The Jakarta Post Bandung, West Java

Student dismissed over pornographic VCD

A female student of the state University of Padjadjaran in Bandung, West Java, has been dismissed from the university over a pornographic VCD of her, copies of which are circulating widely in the city.

Hadi Suprapto Arifin, a member of the ethics commission of the University's communications faculty who handled the case, said the student had been dismissed after the ethics commission gave a recommendation to the rector for her removal on Oct. 3.

"We decided to dismiss her after holding a meeting to view several extracts from cropped photos reproduced from the VCD. The woman in the photos is indeed our student and based on our data, she was admitted in 2000," he told reporters here on Friday.

Hadi said the student, identified as Nn, had met Suganda Priyatna, dean of the faculty, to provide clarification on the case.

"During the clarification, she admitted her wrongdoing and the admission has been adequate evidence for us to fire her because the case will certainly have a negative impact on the university's image unless tough measures are taken," he said.

Based on the ethic commission's investigation, copies of the VCD have been traded not only in shopping malls but also among students at the university since last August, at a price of Rp 5,000 per copy.

According to Nn's fellow students, the VCD was originally designed for self-consumption and contained depictions of her sexual encounters with her fiance as they marked their 23-month relationships in a hotel in Bali. They suspect the VCD might have been copied without their permission when Nn's fiance, identified as AH, asked his friend to transfer the footage from a handycam cassette to a VCD. AH's friend then allegedly made multiple copies to sell to other students.

AH had earlier been dismissed from a private university for his poor attendance record.