Changes to Censorship Act on the way, says Abani

By JINA AMBA
THE Censorship Office is amending the classification or publication of the Censorship Act, Chief Censor Jim Abani says.
He told The National that this was due to the increase in the number of people, including school children, abusing internet.
“The first thing is that we need to change the current legislations that we have because at that time, we did not have phones, internet and technology, so we are now amending the classification or publication on Censorship Act and it’s at draft stage now,” Abani said.
He said changes to the Act had been mooted since 2014, but when he became chief censor, he had made it a priority to get the relevant legislation reviewed and updated.
“Research was carried out in selected schools last year and there were some evidence showing that students had always abused technology and that will be the way forward for us to see what will be the mechanisms that we will put in place.”
Abani said there also needed to be better coordination between relevant agencies that regulated or directed policy on mass media and communications.
“We are working with certain stakeholders to ensure that we try to amend some of these loopholes and to be more responsible in trying to control and monitor these indecent material that is now flooding into our country which adults and kids are able to access,” he said.
Abani said large scale awareness was the way forward and the Censorship Office continued to inform the public.
Meanwhile, students from Kilakila Secondary School in Port Moresby are undergoing a three-day censorship ambassador school programme.
Abani said the training was to equip students with skills and knowledge on the work of censorship so that they could make awareness to other students in the school.