Banned DVDs confiscated

By BOSORINA ROBBY
A LICENSED DVD movie distributor had its new shipment of DVDs seized for rating yesterday by the Censorship Office.
Deputy chief censor Jim Abani said that the company had been under surveillance for the two months because it was known to have distributed the banned multi-titled DVDs.
He said upon intelligence received from the Southern Region Customs Intelligence, the office was able to determine the type of DVDs being imported.
Abani said he was on site on Sunday, between 6.30pm and 9pm, to advise the owners to lock the cartons before bringing them to the Censorship Office for proper scrutiny yesterday. He said all 54 cartons were checked and found to contain only the accepted single-titled DVDs.
“These will be thoroughly checked, rated and then returned to the distributor for sale in the city.
“Single-titled movies are acceptable,” he said.
“We did this because this particular distributor used to bring in multi-titled DVDs but now it hasn’t.
“We are also keeping surveillance on the other licensed distributors to ensure that they do not bring in any multi-titled DVDs.
“This way, we can tighten the loopholes and gaps that these people keep finding to bring in the banned DVDs,” Abani said.
The ban on the multi-titled movies was authorised last year to safeguard the public from pirated and cheap reproductions, and from pornographic materials, which were most often not censored and rated by the Censorship Office.
The move to monitor the DVDs and CDs has been ongoing since the ban and the Office is appealing to stakeholders and the public to assist them keep these banned movies off the streets.
Abani said at the moment, the Office and the PNG Customs Services were working in reviewing their strategy to ensure distributors do not bring in the banned DVDs.