This is a Bill to supplement the Act passed in 1923, in certain respects in which it was found inadequate. While the pictures shown within the Saorstát were required to pass the Official Censor and to be certified as fit for exhibition in public, there was nothing to prevent persons engaged in the film trade from advertising such pictures by means of posters which were themselves suggestive and improper, and which conveyed an entirely false impression as to the nature of the entertainment actually given to the public. I was somewhat surprised, after the Censorship of Films Act, 1923, was passed, and after it was in effective operation, to receive letters from clergymen and others throughout the country protesting vehemently against the nature of the films that were being exhibited. Inquiry in many cases showed that the opinions were being formed from the advertising posters that were being exhibited in connection with these pictures, the fact being that the scenes depicted on the posters in most cases did not occur at all in the actually exhibited films, and in some few cases were scenes that had been deleted by the Censor in the performance of his functions. Posters of this kind found their way into practically every town and into a great many villages in the country, and, as I am informed, did considerable harm.
This Bill proposes to extend the Censorship to these posters and advertisements in connection with the film trade. It might be convenient, for the information of the Deputies, to describe the manner in which the publicity for cinematograph films is prepared and distributed. Advertisements fall mainly under two heads. They are either actual photographs extracted from the films and used to illustrate the incidents from which they are extracted, or they are coloured posters which may or may not represent actual incidents in the film play. In many cases these posters do not represent any such incidents but are designed to indicate the general tendency of the play which they purport to advertise. The photographic advertisement is dealt with in Section 2 of the Bill at present under review. Section 2 prohibits the exhibition of any such photographic reproduction of an incident in the picture unless the part so reproduced has been certified by the Official Censor for exhibition in public. As regards the other variety of posters mentioned, I am informed that when a film is produced. the manufacturers prepare at the same time what is called an exploitation sheet containing a variety of posters, perhaps a dozen or more, which they regard as suitable for advertising it. These exploitation sheets are furnished to renters who obtain the picture, and the exhibitor who hires the picture selects from the sheet such posters as he considers will best suit the district and the clientele of his house.
The Bill, as drafted, proposes that a copy of the exploitation sheet must be furnished to the Official Censor at the same time as the picture to which it refers, and the Censor may decide which posters may be exhibited and which may not. An appeal will lie against his decision in this matter in the same way as an appeal lies against his refusal to grant a certificate in respect of a picture at present. Where a poster is displayed which has not been passed by the Official Censor, the exhibitor will be guilty of an offence. As, however, the original decision will have been conveyed not to the exhibitor but to the renter, it is necessary to insert a fresh clause, Section 4 of this Bill, to prevent the exhibitor being held responsible where, in fact, the offence is committed by the renter. A situation might arise where a renter knowing that the Official Censor had forbidden the display of certain posters deliberately failed to inform an exhibitor of such prohibition. In such a case the exhibitor will, if he can prove the facts, relieve himself from blame and throw the onus on the renter.
Section 5 forbids the exhibition in relation to a picture of any certificate (other than that of the Official Censor) purporting to authorise the exhibition in public of such picture.
Under the Censorship of Films Act, 1923, the Minister for Justice might make regulations for the carrying into effect of that Act, but, by an oversight, power was not taken to provide penalties for breaches of the regulations so made. Section 6 is intended to remedy the omission.
The regulations must be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the Oireachtas has power to annul them by resolution.
