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New Zealand film and television classification laws are being brought
into question with many businesses calling them outdated and
prohibitive.
Every film or television show that comes to New Zealand cinemas, video
stores or retail outlets has to be rated. New Zealand adopts or
cross-rates G, PG and M ratings from Australia and Britain but 15 and 18
rated films must be classified by New Zealand censors.
Video store owner Andrew Armitage says businesses just want fairness
with classification laws: We're not asking for a relaxation of
classification or censorship we just want fairness restored because it
is too often prohibitive. Armitage wants to see the threshold raised
for the 15 plus age group.
Chief Censor Bill Hastings says they have been warned against such a
move. The Australian New Zealand trans-Tasman Recognition Committee
has decided that there are sufficient differences between Australia and
New Zealand culture and law, that they recommended against creating a
single market.
For example five seasons of the television show The L Word would
have cost distributors $17,600 to be processed. Armitage says such price
tags are a huge deterrent: Anything that has this red sticker on it
has to go through the classification process, so that's $1100 worth of
classification costs right there.
Hastings says the fees have remained the same for 13 years despite
inflation, making them a bargain: Our classification fees are
extremely competitive with Australia classification fees which range
from $500 AUD to $5000 AUD. The Chief Censor can also grant fee
waivers dropping that cost to $275 each, a reduction automatically given
to film festival movies.
International film festival director Bill Gosden says costs are still
high despite the waiver: Although we do receive a concession rate, a
fee waiver from the classification office, we still spent in excess of
$30,000 last year in film censorship. Because so many titles are
unavailable locally and legitimately consumers are finding other ways to
access them, which retailers say not only affects business, but can also
lead to illegal purchase and distribution.
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Beijing court has found Christian bookstore owner Shi Weihan guilty of
illegal business operation and sentenced him to three years in
prison and a 150,000 yuan (US$21,975) fine.
