The need for censorship

12.1 In turning to the control of films, we come to the only area covered by our review which is subject to a sophisticated system of pre-censorship. We have already described how the system works and its rather haphazard origins. The effect of the system is broadly that what is regarded as objectionable, for reasons only partly concerned with what the law prohibits, is never allowed to gain a showing in a public cinema, so that those who are responsible for enforcing the laws on obscenity and indecency on a “subsequent punishment” basis scarcely have to concern themselves with investigating whether the law is being broken. The system therefore combines prior restraint with extra-legal control. The first and fundamental question we had to consider was whether a system of this kind was necessary or desirable.

12.2 Despite the system's haphazard origins and despite the fact that this style of control is in this country peculiar to the cinema, it has many friends and few enemies. It has operated for a long time with a remarkable degree of public acceptance. Objections of principle to any idea of pre-censorship have to a large extent been suspended in favour of film censorship. It has undoubtedly been an effective system, both making it fairly certain what cinemas can legally show and under what conditions, and providing fairly watertight procedures to ensure that the rules are kept. It is not surprising that such a system should hold an appeal, as we mentioned in Chapter 9, for those struggling with the uncertainties of the law on obscenity in other areas.

12.3 The acceptance of special controls on the cinema is not confined to Britain. Almost everywhere in the world there is a system for the prior vetting of films. Sometimes this is only to categorise films with regard to their suitability for children, such as in the United States of America, where the principles of the “free speech” amendment to the Constitution are regarded as paramount. Often, however, the system works to prevent certain material from being shown to adults. France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all, like us, have film censorship systems which control films intended even for adult viewing.