FACEBOOK has decided to disable the account of journalist Travis Chase of the HGP Nightly News (Channel 16/Cable 67), who caused a maelstrom of controversy on November 6th when he leaked photographs depicting a man said to be “Pope Emmanuel” Philbert London of Beacon Ministries in pornographic mode with several females.

The blurred images on Chase’s Facebook Page depicted pornographic scenes involving the self-proclaimed pope, who starred in, and produced, sex tapes with several female members of his congregation. As such, some church members who were upset at the situation reported Chase’s Facebook Page.

However Chase, through his attorney Selwyn Pieters, has written a letter to Vice President and General Counsel of Facebook Inc, Colin Stretch, asking for the account to be restored with immediate effect.

In that letter, seen by this newspaper, the attorney argued that Mr. London is “a public figure, and there is no expectation of privacy to which he is entitled where, as here, his conduct as a leader of a church and a person over whom trust is reposed has breached that by making sex tapes with his congregants. In other professionals — law, medicine, teaching, professionals are subjected to discipline, including licence revocation.”

According to the lawyer, “It is clear that the issue Mr. Chase raised has gathered significant public interest. The post has taken social media by storm, with well over 3000 comments and shares. Importantly, however, there was no other nudity on his page; as mentioned previously, some images were blurred.”

The lawyer further argued that given the fact that Chase is an investigative journalist who exposes issues of crime, corruption, and professional misconduct, including that of office holders, some of his posts would offend some, prompting them to report the page.

“However, being offended is not enough to restrict reporting of public interest matters, and it is not enough to warrant the disabling of Mr. Chase’s Facebook account,” the lawyer said.

The sexually explicit images, which were partially blurred, appeared on social media platform minutes after midnight on Saturday, and by Sunday morning, hundreds of Guyanese were in tuned with the images, which were initially taken down by Facebook after the first posting. However, persons had already shared and saved the pictures, which re-appeared via dozens of “shares” throughout the day.

In one of the partially blurred images, a man took a picture of his genitalia while posing in pastoral dress with a symbolic priestly emblem visible on his right bust.

Another depicted the man lying in bed with two females in the nude, one of whom was lying face down on his right shoulder while the other on his left shoulder was looking at the camera.

Yet another image depicted a woman lying face down on a man’s torso, while an image of a woman on the right arm of a man are depicted in another. A man bearing the image of London is depicted in another image, lying on his back on a bed with a partial smile of satisfaction on his face while his arms are outstretched above his head.

The pictures were allegedly taken by London and his female companions, while reports suggest that videos of the sexual escapades were taped, allegedly by the self-proclaimed pontiff. Reports have suggested that the images were recorded at his home with the consent of all parties.