The Society For The Promotion Of Community Standards Inc.
PO BOX 13-683. JOHNSONVILLE, NEW ZEALAND
Sexually Violent ‘Entertainment’ And The Chief Censor
Monday 24 June 2002
“The availability of films, videos and DVDs featuring ‘sexual violence’ combined with ‘graphic violence’, to those 18
years of age and older, has dramatically increased since Mr Bill Hastings was appointed to the roles of Acting Chief
Censor in December 1998 and Chief Censor in October 1999.” Rev. Gordon Dempsey, President of the Society for the
Promotion of Community Standards said: “this is the conclusion the Society’s executive has come to based on a careful
two-year study of a wealth of information supplied to it by the Information Unit of the Office of Film and Literature
Classification (OFLC).”
“Since the Films, Videos and Publication Act (‘the Act’) came into force in October 1993, the OFLC, which Hastings
heads, has classified over 30 publications with a censor’s descriptive (warning) note ‘contains sexual violence’. This
activity is always combined with other ‘objectionable’ elements noted in the censor’s warnings, including ‘graphic
violence’, ‘scenes of torture’, ‘drug taking’ and ‘explicit sex’”, he said.
All of these publications can, with a few exceptions, be viewed in a public cinema and/or hired for home screening by
anyone who has attained the age of 18 years. One exception is Baise-Moi, the French sex-violence film that is currently
the subject of a High Court interim restriction order imposed on the film on 12 April 2002 under s. 67 of the Act. The
applicant for the order was the Society, which has appealed the classification decision made by the Film and Literature
Board of Review, dated 13 March 2002, that gave it a general R18 classification.
Dempsey said: “The marked increase over the last three-and-a-half years of ‘sexually violent’ publications, is of
serious concern to the Society’s executive who believe that it reflects a failure of the OFLC to properly apply the law.
From October 1993 to October 1999, a period of six years, nine publications containing ‘sexual violence’ were approved,
while from October 1999 to October 20001, a period of only two years, 21 have been approved. Since October 2001 the
Chief Censor has seen fit to approve many more such films and videos for classification. For example, on 19 December
2001 he personally approved a film for general R18 release on DVD that contains the descriptive note ‘contains strong
violence, sexual violence and scenes of torture and degradation’. The OFLC decision he signed states: ‘the publication
depicts acts involving the infliction of cruelty and serious physical harm, sexual violence, and sexual and physical
conduct of a highly degrading nature, and shows the perpetrators deriving sexual pleasure from undertaking theses
activities.’ These activities involve the exploitation and coercion of children for sexual purposes by adults. The acts
explicitly depicted involve urination and human excrement.”
“This year,” Dempsey said, “Mr Hastings approved for R18 release the films Bully which contains ‘violence, sexual
violence, drug use and sex scenes’ and Visitor Q containing sexual violence and degrading and dehumanising sex acts
including necrophilia (sex with a corpse). Mr Hastings personally endorsed both films to a largely student audience on
Radio 95 bFM in Auckland on 27 March 2002. Both films now have an interim restriction order placed on them by the
President of the Film and Literature Board of Review, Ms Claudia Elliott. The Society applied for these restriction
orders in April.”
“Baise-Moi, without a doubt,” Dempsey argues, “is the most sexually violent film ever to receive a classification other
than ‘objectionable’ by the OFLC. The decision was approved and signed by Mr Hastings on 20 August 2001.”
“The Society has sought to highlight nationally the failures of the Classification Office,” he said, “by appealing the
OFLC decision on Baise-Moi, first to the Film and Literature Board of Review on the 17th December 2001 and more recently
appealing the Board’s decision to the High Court in Wellington on 11-12 April and 11-12 June. National attention has now
been focused on this case and all parties are now awaiting the ruling by the Hon. Justice Hammond, which is expected
within the next few months. The Society through its lawyers has argued that the High Court should remit the matter of
the classification of Baise-Moi back to the Board of Review, giving clear directives to the Board to assist it to
correctly apply section 3 of the Act to the ‘objectionable’ contents of the publication. Section 3 deals with the
meaning of ‘objectionable’ publication.”
“The Society has also sought to highlight the failure of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. George Hawkins, to
fulfil his statutory duty and appoint a deputy chief censor,” he said, “by applying to the High Court on the 28th March
2002 for a judicial review of the matter. Once papers had been served on the Minister in early April, he promptly set
about doing what he was required to do by law. He has now undertaken to fill the position by the end of July this year.
The Act states in s 79 (1): ‘There shall be a Chief Censor and a Deputy Chief Censor…’”.
“The Society has pointed out that Mr Hastings, has operated as the sole executive officer of the OFLC for over three
years, during the period that the vast bulk of this ‘objectionable’ sexually violent, degrading and dehumanising
material has been given approval for home and public viewing. The Society believes he must be held personally
accountable. His three-year contract comes up for renewal in October this year.”
The “constitutional, legal and management issues surrounding the absence of a Deputy Chief Censor” (OFLC Report 2000, p.
7) have been noted in the last three annual reports of the OFLC. “The Society believes,” said Mr Dempsey, “that an
effective deputy chief censor should be able to able to help reign in the deluge of ‘sexually violent’ and
‘objectionable’ publications that are being approved by the current Chief Censor.”
“The Society is convinced,” he said, “by the growing body of published research findings that there is a firmly
established link between the rise in exposure of the general public to ‘sexual violence’ and ‘graphic violence’ in the
so-called entertainment field, to the rise in these depraved activities in their criminal manifestation in our society.”
“In contrast the Classification Office and Board of Review appears to reject this connection,” he said. “Decisions from
these statutory bodies present the view that films like Baise Moi should not be banned or cut due to ‘objectionable’
contents, but should be made available on the basis of its ‘artistic merit’ to young people who have attained the age of
18 years. Mr Hastings considers film festival-goers and students of film media studies attending tertiary film or media
studies courses should be able to view this film.”
“Who is he trying to fool?” asks Dempsey. “Perhaps he would like to consider the following questions that students of
film and media studies may well ask their lecturers and tutors….
‘Please Sir, can we re-run that explicit and brutal rape scene in slow motion to study the use of camera angle, lighting
and the finer nuances of dialogue?
‘Please Miss, can we study those voyeuristic lingering shots of penetration so we can better understand the postmodern
feminist genre undergirding this intellectually arousing film.’”