SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Praise for Censor’s Ban on “Cradle of Filth” T-shirt

by 7 Comments

SPCS Press Release 1 July 2008

John Mills, President of the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc, (SPCS) has hailed as “bold, morally courageous and legally sound”, the classification decision issued to him today by the Chief Censor’s Office, that permanently bans a T-shirt he argued was “grossly objectionable due to its obscene content” and “completely vilifies the central figure of Christianity”. The Censor’s Office agreed with Mr Mills, an elder at the Kapiti Christian Centre, that the T-shirt, worn and flaunted in a large public gathering on the Kapiti Coast and a part-image (censored) of which was published in the Kapiti Observer newspaper, should be classified “objectionable”.

[Read more…]

Lindsay Perigo’s speech that ‘launched’ Dr Death’s book

by Leave a Comment

Peaceful Pill Book ‘Launched’ in NZ. Perigo labels those responsible for seeking to restrict or ban The Peaceful Pill Handbook as motivated by “religious bigotry” and only fit for the trash-can of human history.

Dr Philip Nitschke’s Peaceful Pill Handbook was launched in Auckland on Sunday 13th February 2007. The next day an application from Dr Nitschke seeking leave of the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, to have the book classified was received by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). On the 15th February 2007, Hastings, granted leave. The OFLC classified the book “objectionable” in a decision dated 7 June 2007 (OFLC No. 700240), signed by Hastings.

The book ‘launch’ featured a speech by Lindsay Perigo, available from Not PC (MP3, 5.5 MB, 24 min), in which he vigorously defended freedom of speech. He labelled politicians and priests –  history’s greatest enemies of free speech and discussed the views of some of those we remember as advocates of free speech, including Voltaire. In a bewildering flourish of rhetoric he claimed that priests and politicians operate under the arrogant presumption that they own “your life” or “their god owns your life” – all priests label everything one might enjoy doing as evil and bad and find pleasure when we suffer miserably. He labelled all those who argued that The Peaceful Pill Handbook should be banned as motivated by “religious bigotry”. He closed by claiming that the world could only become truly civilised when the guts of the last politician is strangled by the guts of the last priest. He received thunderous and applause from the tiny ensemble of aged individuals who attended the ‘launch’.

[Read more…]

Application for Leave re Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited version)

by 4 Comments

The Society has sought leave under s. 47(2)(e) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”), to apply to the Film and Literature Board of Review (“the Board”) for a review of the classification of the highly controversial console game Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited US version) [also known as or GTA 4]. As noted in our application for leave dated 27 May 2008, the unedited game was classified R18 by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (“the OFLC”) on the 21st May 2008.

[Read more…]

Grand Theft Auto IV: Who is the NZ distributor profiting from this offensive “Crime-Promoting Game”?

by Leave a Comment

Grand Theft Auto IV (also known as GTA 4) – a computer game formatted for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – was launched on April 29, 2008 and sold nearly 2.9 million copies in the United States in its first five days.1 The game – made by Two’s Rockstar studio – with first-week worldwide sales forecast of up to $US400 million, was submitted to the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) on the 4th of February 2008 by the Film and Video Labelling Body Inc (FVLB).

The computer game’s distributor, the applicant to the FVLB, recorded on the application form, its identity as “TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE”. All other details relating to the company were deleted from the form by the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, when he provided the application form to the Society, in response to its Official Information Request (OIR). The applicant’s contact person, return street address for the publication and contact telephone number, were all deleted.

The Society Investigates……..

[Read more…]

Society’s Submission to the Ministry of Culture and Heritage

by Leave a Comment

Submission Re: Consultation Paper: “Broadcasting and New Digital Media: Future of Content Regulation”

Ministry of Culture & Heritage January 2008

Society’s responses to Ministry Questions submitted 11 April 2008

Q 1 What concerns are appropriate to be addressed through content regulation.

These concerns should include all content that could be considered “objectionable” and/or “injurious to the public good” …. all the matters covered under Sections 3(1), 3(2), 3(3), 3(3)(A) and 3(3)(B) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act (1993), which was amended in 2005. Concern should also include all matters related to issues of fairness, accuracy, balance and personal privacy, as well as others currently dealt with in Section 4(1) of the Broadcasting Act (1989). Consideration also needs to be given to the current set of principles established by the Press Council as well as matters dealt with in s. 21 of the Human Rights Act 1993 relating to the treatment of classes of persons.

[Read more…]