Congratulations to Pat for his win of the New World Tawa raffle.
We heard from club speaker, Peter Lockery, on his bucket list to attend the major world tennis tournaments and a recent trip to the French open at Paris, followed by a 12 day Mediterranean cruise.
We also welcomed two visitors as potential new members; Virginia Wilson and Louise Bray-Burns.
Our main speaker was David Shanks, Chief Censor, who spoke to us on the work of the Censor and future direction.
David has been Chief Censor since May 2017. His career has spanned senior leadership and legal positions in both the public and private sectors.
David commenced his presentation with a quick review of the history of censorship and that it actually had Roman origins which provided its derivation connection to census. Officially known as the "Office of Film and Literature Classification", the office acts to preserve New Zealander's rights to freedom of expression in its decision making. The office provides recognised classifications, reliable warnings, and valued guidance to the public every day. They work with enforcement agencies on the darker side to help reduce the impact of publications that promote such things as child exploitation, terrorism, and sexual violence. They also provide globally recognised research; e.g. a recent publication is a research paper on "Young New Zealanders Viewing Sexual Violence" which deals with interviews with young New Zealanders.
The current legislation originates from the 1993 Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act, so that it is pre internet technologies. Their scope includes anything at all that may have writing or images on it, including; jigsaw puzzles, clothing, bumper stickers, photos, drink cans, and campervans. Their involvement may be proactive; e.g. for films, DVDs, and video games, or reactive, e.g. in response to a complaint. The prime criteria for censorship is whether its availability is likely to be injurious to the public good.
The online world of the internet and social media present new challengers and potentially new solutions.
"Watch carefully - think critically"
David left us with some copies of brochures about "New Zealand's Classification System", "Challenging Media: talking to young people about what they're watching", and the research paper "Young New Zealanders Viewing Sexual Violence"
