Decency legislation for video tapes

Press, 25 October 1985, Page 3

Decency legislation for video tapes

Parliamentary reporter Video tapes will have a decency classification and greater consumer labelling under new legislation to be introduced by the Government. A Video Tape Authority, similar to the Indecent Publications Tribunal, will be set up to put a classification on each video, including those Jor private viewing. The' Acting Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, told reporters that yesterday’s caucus had agreed to the main elements of the legislation and he hoped a bill would be introduced before the end of the year. “I think the establishment of the Video Tape Authority will overcome a good many of the problems that have been present in New Zealand in recent years with these video tapes,” Mr Palmer said. The standards for assessing decency would probably be similar to those now for books, the new authority

having a “special jury” role in applying the standards similar to the role of the Indecent Publications Tribunal. “That sort of procedure which was a great innovation in its time has proved its success. We have fewer problems than most countries because of the way that tribunal works.” It was hoped that that sort of approach would have a similar effect in the video area, Mr Palmer said. The authority would determine what was indecent or not, bringing uniformity which was very difficult to attain under the present law which left these issues regarding video tapes to the courts. Mr Palmer said the authority would be administered by the Internal Affairs Department which also deals with film censorship. The classification system for videos would be similar to that for films but had to be different because the

former were generally not for public exhibition. Mr Palmer said video tape classifications would be at considerable cost to the Government because of the number of tapes in existence. Considerable expense would be put on the video industry also because of the legislation requirements for classification and labelling, he said. Mr Palmer said the new bill would also contain provisions to ensure that all tapes had information attached “setting out exactly what can be expected by those people who hire or purchase them.” He said the legislation would cover a very complex area which had been studied by the departments of Internal Affairs, Police, and Customs over several months. It was intended that the bill go to a Parliamentary select committee.