A row between the chief censor and internet television service Lightbox has deepened, with the latest spat over the labelling of adult western Deadwood.
Chief censor Andrew Jack said the Spark-owned company was “continuing to mislead its customers” with “inaccurate” content warnings.
Lightbox chief executive Kym Niblock said Lightbox was meeting the needs of its customers and expressed disappointment Jack had taken his concerns to the media without contacting the company.
Jack said Lightbox had labelled Deadwood with a “provisional R16” rating that failed to include specific warnings about its violent and sexual content from its official R16 classification.
He had previously complained about what he described as inadequate content warnings on ballet-themed drama series Flesh and Bone, which is also shown on Lightbox.
“New Zealand viewers and their families deserve better consumer information than they are getting from Lightbox,” he said.
Lightbox disappointed the censor by deciding to stop submitting material to the Film and Video Labelling Board (FVLB) for classification in December.
That was after the Culture and Heritage Ministry found internet television services sat outside the existing regulatory regimes.
Niblock said that although Lightbox was not obliged to show the official warning label for Deadwood that was handed down in March, its failure to do so had been an oversight.
Full story by Tom Pullar-Strecker. February 26, 2016
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