‘Community not adequately represented

Press, 18 October 1976, Page 13

‘Community not adequately represented

PA Hamilton The community is not adequately represented at hearings of the Indecent Publications Tribunal, says the anti-pornography campaigner, Miss Patricia Bartlett.

This was because salaried prosecuting lawyers, usually representing the Customs Department, did not press their case with the enthusiasm of highly paid defence counsel employed by major book publishers, she said, in an interview in

Hamilton. It was also because incorporated societies, such as her own Society for the Protection of Community Standards, could not get party status before the tribunal.

In August, the society made its third attempt to be

recognised by the tribunal as eligible to call witnesses and cross-examine defence witnesses during examination of referred publications.

Miss Bartlett said the society had now been told that its plea had been re-| jected — because “we are not a person likely to be affected.” “We felt that as an incorporated society, with the enforcement of anti-por-nography law as its chief aim, we would be in a different category from the man in the street,” she said. “But all we can do is send in written submissions.”