Inspectors seize tapes

Press, 19 January 1989, Page 9

Inspectors seize tapes

By

JANE ENGLAND

South Island video shop inspectors have seized 122 tapes in the first two days of enforcing new labelling laws.

The inspectors from the Department of Internal Affairs have been focusing their attention on Christchurch. They are expecting a lager haul when the inspection is extended to Timaru, Ashburton, and Nelson. Prosecutions could be laid against offending retailers with possible penalties of $lO,OOO for a corporation or $3OOO for an individual and, if the tape is a banned title, three months imprisonment.

The offenders could not plead ignorance, said the regional manager for Internal Affairs in Christchurch, Mr Barry Nalder. The new labelling laws had been extensively publicised.

The inspectors would be lenient in some cases during the first month of enforcement.

“In the second round prosecution will be the only option,” he said. Video outlets in garages, dairies and hotels were the main offenders. A few main video shops had been labelling the tape and not the container and displaying restricted videos. i

Most of the seizings had been adult videos but there had been cases where children’s videos had been incorrectly labelled. More than 80 outlets have been inspected. That number would be doubled by the time the initial law enforcement stage was completed.