2 February 2024
Nicholas Parry
By email:
[FYI request #25234 email]
Tēnā koe Nicholas,
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA), which we
received on 18 December 2023.
You said:
Hey I noticed yal banned a book and one of the reasons was because it
discussed the pros and cons of different legal statuses of the topic at hand
and its impact in different countries.
Could you send me a list of al media banned for, atleast in part, discussing
weather something should be illegal or legal, or discussing legal status of
something in multiple countries.
In responding to your request, we have weighed up the factors in the OIA,
including the purposes i
n section 4 and the principle of availability in
section 5.
Response to your request
Te Mana Whakaatu—Classification Office does not hold a list of the kind you
describe. Accordingly, your request is refused under
section 18(e) of the OIA.
Additional information
Publications cannot be banned in New Zealand simply for discussing whether
something should be legal or illegal. A publication can be banned if it “promotes
or encourages criminal acts or acts of terrorism” (pe
r section 3(3)(d) of the Films,
Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993), and only if a restriction would not
be enough to mitigate likely injury to the public good (see
section 3(1) of the Act).
Further, parts of publications cannot be banned. When classifying a publication,
Te Mana Whakaatu—Classification Office considers it as a whole. In rare cases,
we can ask for films to be cut if that would change the classification of the film. It is
up to the film distributor whether to make the cuts. (For more information, see
sections 32 an
d 33 of the Act.)
link to page 2
A list of books that have been banned by our office, th
e Film and Literature Board
of Review, and the Indecent Publications Tribunal is publically available.
1 This list is
available
alphabetically or chronologically. If you would like to access records of any publication we have classified, you can
search th
e Register of Classification Decisions. If you would like a copy of any
classification decision, please contact us. We are required to supply these on
request (under
section 38(3) of the Act).
Publication of response
This response may be published on the Classification Office’
s website. If it is
published there, your personal information will be redacted.
Right of review
You have the right to make a complaint and seek a review by the Ombudsman of
this response under
section 28(3) of the OIA. Information about this process is
available at
ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Thank you for your interest in our mahi.
Ngā mihi nui,
Te Mana Whakaatu—Classification Office
1 The Tribunal was a predecessor to the Classification Office. It existed from 1964 to 1994.