'Outdated' censorship laws need change

New Zealand's "unwieldy and expensive" censorship laws are so outdated they are at odds with the Bill of Rights, a media law specialist says.

Censorship laws had not kept up with technological change, resulting in a confused "patchwork" of rules, Victoria University law lecturer Steven Price said.

For example, films and television series did not need to be classified to be shown on television, but required a classification to be sold or rented on DVD.

"It's difficult to say restrictions are justified in one case and not in another, and that's where you're going to strike Bill of Rights issues," Mr Price said.

Content should be treated uniformly regardless of format, and legislative changes needed to be future-proofed, he said.

"It's becoming increasingly untenable to keep this system."

His comments came as an on-line campaign for censorship reform gained support from DVD retailers, distributors, libraries and the film industry.

Actor Martyn Sanderson, Real Groovy founder Chris Hart and Lord of the Rings effects' artist Bradford deCaussin are among hundreds of supporters calling for change.

Campaign founder Andrew Armitage, who runs Wellington's Aro St Video Shop, said a government review of censorship laws was long overdue.

"The legislation is faulty, and that needs to be addressed."

The public has missed out on access to many DVD titles because retailers and distributors were often wary of investing in potentially unprofitable classification costs, he said.

DVD titles rated M or below were automatically cross-rated to equivalent British or Australian classifications, but restricted titles, such as R16 films, needed to be classified before they could be bought or sold in New Zealand.

The Office of Film and Literature Classification charged $1100 per disc to classify unrated films or television series, which amounted to "economic censorship", Mr Armitage said.

It was unjustifiable that broadcasters were not subject to the same costs, he said.

"The playing field is woefully uneven. The DVD has been treated very very poorly since its inception, which is over a decade now, and all of this has been under Bill Hastings' watch as Chief Censor."

Mr Hastings said the campaign for reform seemed to be motivated by the economic pressures facing the DVD industry, rather than the workability of the classification system.

"I think to some extent we're an easy target here, and there may be changing economic patterns as much to blame as censorship fees."

DVD retailers and distributors could make better use of the existing classification laws to offset the impact of internet purchases and illegal downloads, he said.

Classification fee waivers of up to 75 per cent were available, and retailers and distributors could cooperate to share the cost of classifying DVD titles.

The law needed to be updated for the digital age, but did not require major surgery, Mr Hastings said.

"Why throw the baby out with the bathwater if you can achieve what you want to achieve through tweaking the existing legislation?"

While the law required adjustments, the decision lay with Parliament, Mr Hastings said.

A spokeswoman for Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy said the Internal Affairs Department and the Ministry of Justice were considering potential amendments to the Classification Act, but ministers were yet to be given detailed advice.

- NZPA