E/1982/3/Add.16 English Page 46
concerts). A public library makes available a wide selection of books and periodicals; books may be borrowed at modest rates. The local broadcasting service which is run by the administration relays programmes of cultural interest (e.g. plays, short stories and serials) from the BBC Overseas broadcasts. discussion programmes and quizzes are also broadcast.
27.
Local
There are two privately-run cinemas in Stanley. Furthermore, films are sent out from Stanley by air to many of the farm settlements for showing to the families and workers living there. Video has also made a small impact on the Colony although it is too expensive to be of popular appeal. There are no theatres (although plays have occasionally been put on in the Town Hall building) but there is a small museum, run by a board of trustees, which is open to the public and is of particular interest to visitors to the Colony.
28.
It is fair to say that the Colony has not developed any folklore or musical traditions of its own. It has always felt itself closely linked to the United Kingdom by tradition and has adopted many of its cultural ideas and attitudes. The result is an absence of the regionalism found in many other isolated territories. There are no indigenous groups within the community with different traditions or ethnic roots. The present population is largely derived from settlers who came to the Islands from the United Kingdom during the second half of the last century.
29.
In addition to the broadcasting service mentioned, there are two local newspapers that are published privately about once per month. There is no television service. Films and video have been mentioned already.
30.
There is no legislation specifically protecting the right of artistic creation and performance. There is a general liberty for the individual to express himself freely, only circumscribed by laws designed to protect individuals and the public interest from unreasonable interference, injury or danger. Thus, the Cinematograph Exhibitions Ordinance, 1952, makes provision for the setting up of a Board of Control to review and censor films and provides that:
31.
"No person shall present or exhibit, or allow to be presented or exhibited, any film or other similar effect, and no person shall display or permit to be displayed any poster intended to advertise an exhibition, unless the same shall first have been approved and passed by the British Board of Film Censors or the Board of Control appointed under the next succeeding subsection" (sect. 4).
The Customs Ordinance (cap. 16) prohibits the importation of: "indecent or obscene prints, paintings, photographs, books, cards, lithographic or other drawings, or any other indecent or obscene articles" (sect. 36).
32. The Publications (Import Prohibition) Ordinance (cap. 53), after a wide definition of "publication", provides that:
"If the Governor is of the opinion that the importation of any publication would be contrary to the public interest he may, in his absolute discretion, by Order in Council prohibit the importation of such publication, and in the case of a periodical publication may, by the same or subsequent Order in Council, prohibit the importation of any past or future issue thereof" (sect. 3).
/...
"1