Film censorship in the UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2002/mar/13/filmcensorship.seanclarke

Films shown in the United Kingdom follow the classifications given by the British Board of Film Classification (formerly the British Board of Film Censorship). The BBFC is an autonomous, self regulatory industry body, which operates to a set of guidelines that may deem a film appropriate or inappropriate. The guidelines include observing immutable codes of conduct as well as dealing with flexible attittudes such as nudity and obscene language.

Suprisingly, I learnt from this article that the BBFC “is keen to highlight the role that public consultation plays in its decision making, and organizes ‘roadshows’ to both canvas public opinion and to justify its decisions” and they also cut films “rarely, and very openly: its website lists the length of any cut, and the reasons for it”.(extracted) This is a very questionable point because we have learnt that what the public expects from the mass media and what the mass media has to offer are often conflicting. Even if the board seeks the opinions of the general public on what they feel is acceptable, will the board actually put them into practice? Will the board be reminded of their onus of removing negative behaviour portrayed in films without compromising on providing quality entertainment values to the public?

Furthermore, it has been said in the article that the BBFC is “very susceptible to influence from government departments, partly through its fear of being made redundant by the creation of an official body”. (extracted) In other words, the board is under the control of the government, which leads to an implication: it is very unlikely that the BBFC will show films that disagree with the government’s ideology and practices. The public would be restricted to viewing films that are pro-government, which also means censorship. Hence, I feel that the irony here is that censorship in the United Kingdom takes place in subtle ways away from public’s eye even though it is claimed that the board cuts its films “very openly”.

The assumption here is that all relevant parties such as the Home Office, the Department of Culture Media and Sport, the British board of film classification, local councils, film distributors and the public included, all have a say in deciding what goes to the cinema and what does not, but in actual fact, as shown earlier, the government has the most authority in the decision-making.