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Finland May Abolish Board of Film Classification |
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By News
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 |
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The Ministry of Education is looking into a abolishing the Board of Film Classification in favour of the industry and broadcasters classifying their movies.
‘We have already made preparatory work so that if a film is shown on television before 9pm then it should not have a restrictive rating when it is available on the “on demand service,”’ explained Jukka Liedes, the civil servant at the ministry in charge of the policy. 9pm is the ‘watershed’ on Finnish television after which more adult-oriented content can be shown.
According to Liedas, the proposed law will abolish the state classification authority. Instead films will be rated by the television channels and the movie distributors. They will adhere to a voluntary code of conduct. However, there will remain a state authority who can ultimately force companies to give a film an ‘eighteen’ rating if there are sufficient complaints that a film has not been rated appropriately.
‘In that sense, rating will take place after distribution, not before. It’s moving towards what’s being called “co-regulation”.
Maarit Pietinen, the senior examiner at the Finnish Board of Film Classification, supports the move.
‘We are all for this,’ she told 65DN. ‘It lets the business take care of the ratings and the state authorities make sure they are valid.’
‘Then a state authority would have an advisory capacity, accept if the film needs to be rated 18. We have the same system at the moment with computer games,’ she added.
According to Pietinen, Finland’s system of movie classification is different from in some countries.
‘If the distributor does not want to pay for the movie to be rated then it is automatically rated 18,’ she said. This is why, she told 65DN, some editions of Monty Python’s Flying Circus – the British, 1970s, madcap comedy sketch show – are rated 18.
‘Also, swearing is not a factor in rating a movie because we don’t consider it harmful to children’s development. We’re not interested in the number of “fucks” and “mother-fuckers” when rating a movie.’
Almost all movies that go before the board do not yet include Finnish subtitles. ‘We are interested in the content,’ she stressed.
Pietinen also wished to emphasise that watching movies all day is not necessarily the dream job people might think it is.
‘I have to do a lot of paperwork and I have to watch a lot of very bad movies!’ she laughed.
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