Censorship Information On-Line

MEDIACOM-RELEASE-OFLC

The Office of Film and Literature Classification (the Classification Office) is going on-line. From 10 March 2000 information about the Office and the censorship system will be available to anyone interested at www.censorship.govt.nz. According to Chief Censor, Bill Hastings "the website is a landmark for censorship in New Zealand. Accessibility and accountability are important and our website will provide both".

The site will carry information on the censorship system, what the Classification Office does and how members of the public can have their say, as well as some historical information on censorship in New Zealand. As much as possible, the Classification Office has tried to provide plain English explanations of what it does as well as providing excerpts from the law. The intention is to expand and develop the site progressively.

The Office also has plans to add a database of classification decisions to its website later this year. The database has been developed over the last two years and now holds all of the decisions of the Classification Office and the Video Recordings Authority, and decisions of the Chief Censor of Films as far back as the mid-70s. Work has already begun on the next phase of this project, that is, adding the decisions of the Indecent Publications Tribunal and the decisions of the Chief Censor of Films prior to 1975.

Feedback from visitors to the site will enable the Office to develop the site, taking into account the interests of the public. "The website opens the way for the Office to provide the public with far more information on censorship than ever before" says Hastings.

Contact: Brenden Crocker or Cathrine Austin on:

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