PRINTED BY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTER
HONG KONG
Preamble
1.
Visual images have always had the ability to arouse a strong emotive response in an audience. The power of a great painting or the influence of a cleverly contrived political cartoon or an election poster is well known. Add to these basic visual factors, movement and sound and, in the case of the cinema, wide-screen, full colour and stereophonic speakers and you have a means of communication capable of creating a powerful influence on an audience.
Film pro- ducers, film distributors and cinema managers therefore have a, responsibility to ensure that the films they offer to the public for showing in licensed cinemas or other public places reach standards which have been determined having regard to the nature of the film medium and the obligation to use it in the best interests of the Hong Kong community. They have a difficult task to produce wholesome entertainment in a highly competitive situation where local standards of taste are being continually flouted by external permissiveness. However, they must strive to maintain a positive approach to that task and uphold their trust as purveyors of film entertainment.
2. There is a general level of what is and what is not acceptable as a public standard by the average member of the community-what goes beyond the limits of ordinary good taste and common sense- and where producers fail to maintain this standard the public have a right. to be protected. The places of Public Entertainment Ordinance (Cap. 127) therefore empowers the Governor-in-Council to provide for and regulate the censoring of films. Under the Film Censorship Regulations no film, trailer, advertisement or hoarding display adver- tising a film may be publicly shown before being passed by the censor. The law provides for appeals against a censor's decision-
(a) by the distributor to a Board of Review;
(b) by any member of the public who considers that a film,
3.
or part of it, should have been banned, to the Colonial Secretary who may then order the showing of the film to be stopped pending a final decision by the Board of Review.
These revised guidance notes relating to the general standards of film censorship in Hong Kong have been prepared both
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