Video tape standards left to the public

Press, 22 July 1986, Page 4

Video tape standards left to the public

PA Tauranga Public standards will be the final measuring stick for the viewing of indecent or violent video tapes, according to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Tapsell. Addressing a small meeting convened by the National Council of Women in Tauranga on Saturday, Mr Tapsell said that whether people watched unsatisfactory tapes containing pornography or violence was a matter of public standards. “Some people have asked me why we do not pre-censor every video tape,” he said.

“The reason we win not is that we would need a vast army of censors to do it We. are talking about thousands of. tapes. “In the end, it comes down to a matter of public standards. We have somehow gradually to improve, public standards.” ’ Mr Tapsell outlined provisions in the Video Recording Bill. He said there were three areas where the decision had to be made as to whether a video was indecent The. first was if a film was denigratory to a person or group; second, did it create an unreal expectation; and third, were the scenes giving concern part of the over-all context of the film?

Mr Tapsell said that within these three areas most concerns about indecent films were covered.

He said he had faith in the video industry to be able to label and classify video tapes. Under the proposed bill all videos will be labelled according to their classification by the video industry.