Pictured: Chief Censor, Jim Abani.
By Louis Maingu
The office of Censorship has held a stakeholder consultation workshop at the Lamana hotel in Port Moresby yesterday (4th April, 2024) to review the Classification of Publication or Censorship Act 1989.
According to the Chief Censor, Mr. Jim Abani, the Censorship Act was passed in 1989, and for the last thirty-three years they have been operating on that act.
“We have seen that the act is not applicable nowadays due to rise in technology” Mr. Abani said.
He further stated that the Office of Censorship has discovered that most of the cases are online, therefore, they have decided that the review of the Censorship Act 1989 has to be done and also to amend some of the provisions that they think is relevant to adapt to the technological changes that are happening today.
“We have already started the process, hence, we have to engage with the department of justice and attorney general to assist us on the review. The review is on the final stages now for the consultation with the stakeholders.” Mr. Abani said.
He further stated that when the Censorship Office presented the proposed bill to the State Solicitor, the State Solicitor indicated that the current Censorship Act 1989 is still relevant.
However, the State Solicitor only proposed to involve online content into the newly proposed amendment bill that they are working on at the moment.
