For immediate release...........
The Society for the Promotion of Community Standards Inc.
P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville
htp://www.spcs.org.nz
Media Release 8/03/06

Chief Censors' Denial Proved False

Chief Censor Bill Hastings has stated that columnist Jim Hopkins' attempt at satire over the controversial "Bloody Mary" episode of South Park "evaporates in the harsh light of truth" and is based on "falsehood", because he did not ban religious videotapes to which Hopkins refers.

Society secretary David Lane says:

"Hastings' claim is disingenuous. He was largely responsible for writing the decision that resulted in the banning of the two videos (GayRights/Special Rights: Inside the Homosexual Agenda and AIDS: What You Haven't Been Told) when he was the deputy president of the Film and Literature Board of Review, a statutory position he held before becoming Deputy Chief Censor in December 1998."

Both videos were classified "objectionable" and therefore banned, by the Board, in its decision dated 18 December 1997.

The Board's lawyer, John Oliver confirmed that Hastings wrote this decision, when he appeared before the Court of Appeal last year in a case in which the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards appealed successfully against another board decision.

Living Word Distributors finally succeeded in having the board's banning orders effectively quashed in a unanimous decision dated 31 August 2000, issued by the five judges of the Court of Appeal. The board was directed to reclassify them both and classified them "unrestricted" nine months later, in its decision dated 31 May 2001.

Ironically, in an earlier decision dated 1 March 2000, by the High Court, that upheld the Board's erroneous banning order, Justice Heron stated that the Court was "troubled by the inroad into the free expression of opinion which this decision represented". Indeed the Court's misgivings were validated when the errors in the Board's decision, written by Hastings, were exposed to "the harsh light of truth" in the Court of Appeal, later that year.

Reference

Letter to the Editor by Chief Censor Bill Hastings
The NZ Herald 28/02/06

Censor's Jurisdiction

"Columnist Jim Hopkins alleges that I did not ban the Bloody Mary episode of South Park for two reasons.

"He first states, tongue-in-cheek, that it would be utterly improper to argue that this New Zealand/Canadian Chief Censor, having previously banned at least one religious videotape because it insulted, demeaned and ridiculed gays, should have banned that episode of South Park on the grounds it did the same to Catholics.

"His attempt at satire evaporates in the harsh light of truth. I did not ban the religious videotape to which he refers."

"... Satire based on falsehood is just inept".

W.K. Hastings,
Chief Censor of Film and Literature.

For full letter see: www.spcs.org.nz

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