Mala calls for review of censorship laws

CENSORSHIP legislations need review in view of the changes in technology, chief censor Steven Mala says.
He said the Classification of the Publication (Censorship) Act 1989 was outdated and needed to be revisited.
Mala told a workshop that the traditional method of censorship was drastically challenged by advances in modern technology and usage of gadgets such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets.
“The Censorship Act is outdated given the change in time and technology,” Mala said.
“This calls for a policy, implementation strategy and good policing.”
Mala said the country needed to have a new policy to cater for changes in modern technology.
The workshop was told that in the past, censorship was easy because it involved censoring movies before viewing. But today the role has become complicated as people are accessing videos, movies, images and literature everywhere through their digital gadgets with little or no control by authorities.
Chairman of the censorship board Joe Kanekane said the phenomenon should be seriously examined before it was accepted.
Mala said censoring was also a family matter and parents must take the lead by censoring what their children viewed and had access to via digital gadgets and other communication mediums.