‘Most obscene’ book indecent

Press, 9 May 1978, Page 29

‘Most obscene’ book indecent

PA Wellington The mast obscene book Miss Patricia Bartlett has seen has been declared indecent by the Indecent Publications Tribunal. The tribunal has aiso declined the application of the Society for the Promo-1 tion of Community Stan-j dards to keep the book for educational purposes. In submissions to the tribunal at its hearing on March 16, Miss Bartlett, Secretary of the society, said the book was sent to her unsolicited as an alleged example of sex educational material used by the Danish authorities in schools. Called “Wee-end Sex,” the! publication is described by the tribunal in its decision as "hard-core pornography”: with explicit photographs of sexual activity. “In essence, she wished to

i retain the magazine for the purposes of the society and, :.in particular, to show it to persons concerned with the education and welfare of ■ children ’so that they will be 'informed as to what depth Jof depravity sex education ■jean descend, as has happenled in Denmark, if there is |no personal right of choice • or control in the matter’.” The tribunal said in its decision that the magazine i was plainly indecent and in itself had no redeeming fea- , ture. 11 “The purposes for which 11 Miss Bartlett seeks a restric--11 tion classification do not i'cause us to change our 'classification, as the laws iland attitudes relating to censorship and sex education in New Zealand are quite | different from those of the ■country of the magazine's i'‘origin,” the tribunal said