Hong Kong starlet apologizes for internet nude photos scandal

Feb 11, 2008, 11:43 GMT

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong pop starlet Monday apologized to her fans after what appeared to be naked pictures of her with a singer/actor were distributed over the internet.

Without confirming whether it was her in the pictures, Gillian Chung, 27, said in a statement to fans she had been 'silly and naïve in the past' but said she was 'grown-up now'.

Chung apologized to her fans for the impact of the photos which have caused a media sensation in the city of 6.9 million since first appearing on internet websites a fortnight ago.

Celebrity Edison Chen, the other person to apparently appear in the pictures, earlier made an apology to the victims of the scandal and appealed to his fans not to download or share the images.

Images of Chen with a number of other women, some well known and some unidentified, have also appeared online over the past fortnight in a scandal that has tainted the reputation of Hong Kong's saccharine-sweet Canto-pop stars.

Chung, 27, a member of the pop group Twins, is a former girlfriend of Chen as are other of the women caught up in the pictures scandal.

She was embroiled in another controversy in 2006 when photos taken of her seminude while dressing backstage at a concert in Malaysia were published in a Hong Kong magazine.

Six men and two women have been arrested in connection with the distribution of the pictures. One has been charged and remanded in custody, causing an outcry among advocates of internet freedom.

Police have refused to say whether the pictures are real but blog sites in Hong Kong claim the images were taken from a computer that Chen took to a shop to be repaired.