Offensive material

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 20

Offensive material

Sir,—You report (September 15) that the British Government will establish a<new body, outside the scope of - broadcasting

authorities, \to which citizens who

feel that violence or sex-have been portrayed in a particularly offensive or dangerous waytpiay appeal. Broadcasters will also' be brought within the scope of the Obscene Publications Act. Something similar is urgently required here, the public should have a right of. appeal against injurious material, not only in television but also in films, video material, and pornographic literature. At present there is too much power and responsibility with the . chief censor, as sole arbiter of the “public good:!’ Moreover, the requirement that the censor take into account “prevailing standards of public taste and decency” should be subject to periodic review, and should be amended where it is seen to result in that which is “injurious to the public good." “Prevailing standards” are continually declining.— Yours, etc., • \ ' H. G. ORAM. V: September 17, 1987. >