Censorship in New Zealand
Encyclopedia
Censorship
in New Zealand
has changed over the years to reflect the demands for a more liberal application of the law on contentious publications.
The Office of Film and Literature Classification
(OFLC) is the government agency that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand. It was created by the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993
and is an independent Crown Entity. The head of the OFLC is called the Chief Censor, maintaining a title that has described the government officer in charge of censorship in New Zealand since 1916.
Patricia Bartlett
was a New Zealand conservative Catholic pro-censorship activist of the 1970s and 1980s and founded the Society for Promotion of Community Standards (SPCS). This organisation is still actively seeking tighter restrictions on the release of some publications.
Office of Film and Literature Classification
.
During the eighties and nineties, an increasingly proactive LGBT New Zealand
community fought several test cases that expanded Howley's precedent to encompass all government censorship regulatory bodies. The Society for Promotion of Community Standards lost all of these cases, whether before the Indecent Publications Tribunal, High Court, Court of Appeal or the later Office of Film and Literature Classification.
Today, most lesbian and gay erotic media products that contain sexual imagery are labelled R18, available only to those eighteen years of age and over. While fetishist erotic media is similarly regulated, any media that depict paedophilia, necrophilia
, zoophilia
, drug manufacture information and violent survivalist media are prohibited in New Zealand .
The "Censorship and Publicity Regulations" was passed in 1939 and used to prevent the dissemination of information deemed contrary to the national interest during World War II
. For example, the newspaper of the Communist Party of New Zealand
, The People's Voice, was seized in 1940.
The Battle of Manners Street
in 1943 was a riot involving American and New Zealand servicemen. No report of the event was permitted in local newspapers.
During the 1951 Waterfront dispute
, it was illegal to publish material in support of the watersiders or their allies.
In 1960 the novel Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov was banned by the Supreme Court.
The film Ulysses based on the James Joyce novel was rated R18 in 1967 and only screened to segregated audiences due to its use of the word 'fuck'.
, which contained violence and real rather than simulated sex by the actors led to was the subject of a number of complaints laid by the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards
. After an extended classification and appeal process, the film was ultimately classified in 2003 by the Film and Literature Board of Review as R18.
Censorship is often called for by Christian influenced groups but in 2000 a complaint was made against two Christian videos that represented homosexuals and bisexuals as "inferior". The case was upheld. Family First New Zealand
have called for the banning of violent video games, most notably Grand Theft Auto IV
, among others.
T-shirts have been censored in New Zealand and in 2007 one that advertised an album for Cradle of Filth
, a British extreme metal
band, was banned by Bill Hastings
, the chief censor in New Zealand. According to Hastings, it was one of the most graphic t-shirts he had ever seen. The shirt displayed an image of a mostly nude Roman Catholic nun sexually pleasuring herself, and with the text "Jesus is a Cunt".
In 2008 The Peaceful Pill Handbook
, a book explaining how to carry out euthanasia, was initially banned in OFLC since it was deemed to be objectionable. In May 2008 it was allowed for sale if sealed and an indication of the censorship classification was displayed. Philip Nitschke
, its author, had deleted content that might have directly assisted the suicide of others, which is an offence under New Zealand's Crimes Act 1961
.
. Bill Hastings
was the Chief Censor from 1999 through to 2010 when he stood to become a District Court Judge and Chair of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. Deputy Chief Censor Nicola McCully will fill the role until a new Chief Censor is appointed.
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
has changed over the years to reflect the demands for a more liberal application of the law on contentious publications.
The Office of Film and Literature Classification
Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)
The Office of Film and Literature Classification is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand...
(OFLC) is the government agency that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand. It was created by the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993
Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993
The Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand.It repealed the Indecent Publications Act 1963, the Films Act 1983 and the Video Recordings Act 1987.-External links:*...
and is an independent Crown Entity. The head of the OFLC is called the Chief Censor, maintaining a title that has described the government officer in charge of censorship in New Zealand since 1916.
Patricia Bartlett
Patricia Bartlett
Patricia Bartlett was a New Zealand conservative Catholic activist of the 1970s and 1980s.She was born in Napier to Bertrand and Ivy Bartlett . She attended Sacred Heart school in Napier and failed her University Entrance examination. In 1947, she became a primary school teacher...
was a New Zealand conservative Catholic pro-censorship activist of the 1970s and 1980s and founded the Society for Promotion of Community Standards (SPCS). This organisation is still actively seeking tighter restrictions on the release of some publications.
Policy shift: 1986 - present
After Parliament passed the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986, New Zealand censorship regulatory bodies could not rely on previous case law and tribunal decisions based on the illegality of gay male sex. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal found that censorship regulators should base their decisions on evidence-based social scientific and medical research, in Howley versus Lawrence Publishing later that same year. As a consequence, film, video and publication censorship became increasingly standardised. This led to the passage of the Film Publications and Videos Act 1993, which merged the previously separate Indecent Publications Tribunal, Chief Film Censor and Video Recordings Authority into a single agency, the New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
Office of Film and Literature Classification
Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)
The Office of Film and Literature Classification is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand...
.
During the eighties and nineties, an increasingly proactive LGBT New Zealand
LGBT New Zealand
New Zealand society is generally fairly relaxed in acceptance of gays and lesbians. The gay-friendly environment is epitomised by the fact that there are several Members of Parliament who belong to the LGBT community, gay rights are protected by the New Zealand Human Rights Act, and same-sex...
community fought several test cases that expanded Howley's precedent to encompass all government censorship regulatory bodies. The Society for Promotion of Community Standards lost all of these cases, whether before the Indecent Publications Tribunal, High Court, Court of Appeal or the later Office of Film and Literature Classification.
Today, most lesbian and gay erotic media products that contain sexual imagery are labelled R18, available only to those eighteen years of age and over. While fetishist erotic media is similarly regulated, any media that depict paedophilia, necrophilia
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...
, zoophilia
Zoophilia
Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία is the practice of sex between humans and non-human animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice...
, drug manufacture information and violent survivalist media are prohibited in New Zealand .
Selected cases
The film All Quiet on the Western Front was banned in New Zealand as anti-war propaganda in 1930. It was eventually allowed to be shown with a few cuts made.The "Censorship and Publicity Regulations" was passed in 1939 and used to prevent the dissemination of information deemed contrary to the national interest during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. For example, the newspaper of the Communist Party of New Zealand
Communist Party of New Zealand
The Communist Party of New Zealand was a Communist political party in New Zealand from the 1920s to the early 1990s. It never achieved significant political success, and no longer exists as an independent group, although the Socialist Worker organisation is considered organisationally continuous...
, The People's Voice, was seized in 1940.
The Battle of Manners Street
Battle of Manners Street
The Battle of Manners Street refers to a riot involving American servicemen and New Zealand servicemen and civilians outside the Allied Services Club in Manners Street, Wellington, New Zealand in 1943. The club was a social centre, open to all military personnel.In 1942-44 there were many American...
in 1943 was a riot involving American and New Zealand servicemen. No report of the event was permitted in local newspapers.
During the 1951 Waterfront dispute
1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute
The 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute was the largest and most widespread industrial dispute in New Zealand history. During the time, up to twenty thousand workers went on strike in support of waterfront workers protesting financial hardships and working conditions. Thousands more refused to...
, it was illegal to publish material in support of the watersiders or their allies.
In 1960 the novel Lolita
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
by Vladimir Nabokov was banned by the Supreme Court.
The film Ulysses based on the James Joyce novel was rated R18 in 1967 and only screened to segregated audiences due to its use of the word 'fuck'.
Notable controversies
The film Baise-moiBaise-moi
Baise-moi is a French film co-directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, released in 2000. It is based on the novel by Despentes, first published in 1999. The film received intense media coverage because of its graphic mix of violence and explicit sex scenes...
, which contained violence and real rather than simulated sex by the actors led to was the subject of a number of complaints laid by the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards
Society for the Promotion of Community Standards
The Society for the Promotion of Community Standards is a conservative Christian-dominated organisation in New Zealand. The Society's objectives include the encouragement of "self-respect and the dignity of the human person, made in the image of God", the "recognition of the sanctity of human life...
. After an extended classification and appeal process, the film was ultimately classified in 2003 by the Film and Literature Board of Review as R18.
Censorship is often called for by Christian influenced groups but in 2000 a complaint was made against two Christian videos that represented homosexuals and bisexuals as "inferior". The case was upheld. Family First New Zealand
Family First New Zealand
Family First New Zealand is a conservative advocacy group in New Zealand.It formed in March 2006 with former Radio Rhema talkback host and South Auckland social worker Bob McCoskrie as the National Director...
have called for the banning of violent video games, most notably Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...
, among others.
T-shirts have been censored in New Zealand and in 2007 one that advertised an album for Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal, and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily...
, a British extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
band, was banned by Bill Hastings
Bill Hastings
His Honour Judge William Kenneth Hastings was New Zealand's tenth Chief Censor, from October 1999 to July 2010. He is currently a District Court Judge and Chair of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.-Biography:...
, the chief censor in New Zealand. According to Hastings, it was one of the most graphic t-shirts he had ever seen. The shirt displayed an image of a mostly nude Roman Catholic nun sexually pleasuring herself, and with the text "Jesus is a Cunt".
In 2008 The Peaceful Pill Handbook
The Peaceful Pill Handbook
The Peaceful Pill Handbook is a controversial book giving instructions on how to perform euthanasia. It was originally published in the U.S. in 2007 and was written by the Australian doctors Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart....
, a book explaining how to carry out euthanasia, was initially banned in OFLC since it was deemed to be objectionable. In May 2008 it was allowed for sale if sealed and an indication of the censorship classification was displayed. Philip Nitschke
Philip Nitschke
Dr. Philip Nitschke is an Australian medical doctor, humanist, author and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before...
, its author, had deleted content that might have directly assisted the suicide of others, which is an offence under New Zealand's Crimes Act 1961
Crimes Act 1961
The Crimes Act 1961 is an Act of the Parliament of New Zealand administered by the Ministry of Justice.-Amendments:The Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 amended the Crimes Act, allowing for consensual homosexual relationships between men....
.
Chief Censor
The Chief Censor is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the Office of Film and Literature ClassificationOffice of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)
The Office of Film and Literature Classification is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand...
. Bill Hastings
Bill Hastings
His Honour Judge William Kenneth Hastings was New Zealand's tenth Chief Censor, from October 1999 to July 2010. He is currently a District Court Judge and Chair of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.-Biography:...
was the Chief Censor from 1999 through to 2010 when he stood to become a District Court Judge and Chair of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. Deputy Chief Censor Nicola McCully will fill the role until a new Chief Censor is appointed.