Censorship in Australia - Update

Further to my post here, I have had some very interesting responses. The first provided me with the chance to meet up with one of the Aussie experts on classification, who had testified at the Parliamentary Committee hearing and provided a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), and who happened to be over in London last week visiting from the University of Canberra. We had a great lunch and I was able to learn a whole lot more about the classification debate currently taking place in Australia than is available on Google (which is probably another first).

Now, another expert, Robyn Ayres, the Executive Director of the Arts Law Centre of Australia (Arts Law), has sent me some more information to share. Robyn notes:

The Arts Law, the national community legal centre for the arts, made a submission and gave evidence to the Senate Inquiry into the National Classification Scheme (NCS). As reported by Simone, the Senate Committee handed down its report on 30 June 2011 and the final report can be accessed here. It is noted that the Senate Inquiry was chaired by former liberal senator, Guy Barnett, a religious conservative, and the grab bag of issues canvassed were of particular concern to those holding similar political and social views as the Chair. See Arts Law’s summary of the Senate Report here.

Whilst the Senate Inquiry was underway, the Australian Attorney General, Robert McClelland, asked the ALRC to inquire more broadly into the NCS especially in view of the many technological developments, particularly convergence issues, and adult-themed computer games, which have emerged since 1995 when the NCS was established. No doubt the recent controversies in Australia concerning the appearance of naked or semi-naked children in art (notably the Bill Henson photography exhibition in 2008) also formed part of the background to the ALRC reference. The ALRC issues paper took a more comprehensive and systematic approach to how the classification and censorship systems should work in Australia.

Submissions to the ALRC inquiry closed on 15 July 2011. Arts Law’s submission, which was widely supported by the Australian arts community, suggested that the Australian Government needs to take a more realistic approach to classification and censorship in the digital age, that it was unnecessary to classify the visual arts and the current NCS which theoretically applies to moving image art (as film), should also be exempted from the classification system. Arts Law also emphasized the importance of retaining ‘artistic merit’ as a factor to be considered classifying work, particularly for the R18+ rating, in view of the right to freedom of expression and the underlying principle that adults should be free to read see and hear what they choose. This principle should only be subject to prohibiting access to illegal content eg child pornography. The ALRC is due to report 30 January 2012.

So it seems that unfortunately this issue is not going to be resolved any time soon. But I will certainly be watching the debate as it develops from now. Thanks to all for their help.

Image: The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel 1863 (from artslaw.com.au)

Limited access art

One of my favourite London magazines, The Stylist [not only free, but full of great content – bit like this blog] recently ran a short piece of news from my homeland. It reported that the Australian government [not known to be the most liberal of governments] had issued a report urging that works of art, as visual works, be given an age-restriction classification in the same way as films. Intrigued I did some digging and, voila, stumbled across the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee's “Review of the National Classification Scheme: achieving the right balance”. Unfortunately, not only is the title a mouthful, but the report itself is huge. So in my quest to achieve the right balance between too much information and not enough [and between work and life], here is a summary of the main points I picked up.

- The Senate referred the Australian film and literature classification scheme to the committee for inquiry and report, with particular reference to inter alia the application of the National Classification Scheme to works of art and the role of artistic merit in classification decisions.

- In the committee's view, the National Classification Scheme is flawed in a number of key areas including: (i) Aside from the complexity of its legislative framework, the scheme does not protect children from material that is likely to harm them; nor does it protect others more broadly from exposure to unsolicited material that they may find offensive, and (ii) 'Artistic merit' remains a defence to child pornography and child abuse material offences in many states, meaning that sexualised images of naked children can be exhibited in public galleries under the guise of 'art'. [This refers to the case of photographer Bill Henson whose artworks were seized by police from an exhibition in Sydney in 2008 due to the fact that they depicted naked children (of 12 and 13).]

- Accordingly, the committee believes that significant changes should be made to the National Classification Scheme.

- As a starting point, the committee identified several key principles should underlie a classification scheme in Australia.

- One of these principles is the application of the National Classification Scheme to artworks. In this respect, the committee noted that the application of the National Classification Scheme to artworks for public exhibition or display is limited. In the committee's view, obtaining classification will assist in ensuring that audiences can be provided with appropriate advice (and, where necessary, warnings) regarding the nature of the artwork. However, since the cost of application fees for classification could present difficulties to artists, the classification of artworks should be exempt from those fees.

- The committee also strongly opposes the inclusion of the artistic merit defence for child pornography offences in state legislation [which was removed from the NSW laws following the Henson case]. Accordingly, the committee recommends that the Australian Government, through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, pursue with relevant states the removal of the artistic merit defence for child pornography offences.

It is not really clear where we go from here. That could however just be because my knowledge of Australian Constitutional Law is a distant memory. So, if anyone knows, please enlighten us.

If you would like to read the whole report, you can find it here.

Image from olinda.com