Long banned book found - And now what?

A book that was banned in the 1970s has been seized from a  book shop in Wellington this week - read more.

And, see what I've written about Courage Day and censorship

New Zealand Pen said  ....

NZ PEN appalled at book seizure in Wellington

The NZ PEN Centre was disturbed to learn of the seizure of
Bloody Mama from a Wellington bookshop earlier this week.

The book was banned in 1971 by the Indecent Publications
Tribunal which was formed in 1963 and replaced by the Office
of Film and Literature Classification thirty years later.
However the Department of Internal Affairs is still bound by
the Tribunal's now outdated censorship rulings and have
taken what PEN considers to be inappropriate action in the
case of Bloody Mama.

"It is time the DIA reviewed the decisions made by the
Tribunal" said PEN President Tony Simpson.  "Books that were
banned forty years ago are considered quite acceptable now.
Freedom of expression and freedom of access to information
are required in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and it is
unacceptable that government officials are today seizing
books.  This is not the sort of practice we would expect in
New Zealand."

The NZ PEN Centre calls for the return of the book and a
review of the Indecent Publications list to bring it into
line with acceptable practices for the 21st Century.