First published in Plastic #2.
Written June 1997, the article has been reproduced verbatim.

On the 8:19am city-bound train, two school girls are discussing a letter sent to a friend in Cairo. With nothing better to do, I casually follow their conversation with my peripheral hearing.

"Really?" one says.
"Yeah, that's what happened. It was censored," replies the other.
"Wow...censor-ship. Is that a word?"

Yes, it certainly is a word. Like many Australians, these girls probably think censorship is a custom practiced only in exotic places like Egypt, Iran or China. Surely their favourite books, TV shows and movies are being presented as originally intended? In most cases, yes. But a trend towards more censorship is gaining momentum in this country, and every form of entertainment is feeling the effects.

David Cronenberg's film adaptation of J. G. Ballard's perverse 1973 novel Crash was passed uncut with an R-rating. Despite condemnation from various people in the media, and a bomb threat being made to the Lumiere Cinema in Melbourne, screenings went ahead as scheduled. Hustler White, a low-budget gay film, was not so lucky. An S&M scene involving a consensual razor blade cutting was deemed too strong for the R-rating. As a result, the distributor (Potential Films) was forced to expurgate the four-minute segment in order to get it passed. Hustler White was shown intact in New Zealand, the US and Europe, except for the UK, which trimmed parts of the cutting scene only.

"Hmmm," as Mike Moore would say.

Another disturbing movement involves the abolition of films that have already been in circulation for years. The Queensland State-Attorney-General, Denver Beanland, has requested that Federal Attorney-General and censorship overlord Darryl Williams ban Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom, saying it "should never have received an R-rating in the first place." According to the guidelines, a film's rating can be revised two years after the previous classification was made. This rule also applies to banned titles such as Wes Craven's Last House on the Left - last examined and refused in 1996 via Customs. 1997 marks its 24th year as an illegal import.

Bad as that sounds, it's not as radical as the Liberal government's plan to napalm the X-rating out of existence, a long-standing party policy. Does the removal of all hardcore films sound extreme? It would if all countries like the UK didn't already enforce this edict. On April 7 1997 the Cabinet compromised: remove X and replace it with Non-Violent-Erotica. The yet to be finalised NVE rating is supposed to disallow bondage, S&M, and other unsavoury acts which are otherwise legal between consenting adults in our community.

Pornography on pay-television became an issue after Galaxy installed its R-rated Nightmoves softcore adult romp. The Australian Family Planning Association wants the 11pm to 4am programme dropped, a move the show's producer finds bizarre as it is more difficult to access this PIN-number protected show than it is to rent R-rated videos. It seems that the precedent Nightmoves has started is what hardline conservatives object too. Now endorsed by the government, the show will be staying for the short term at least.

Another spur for the formation of Watch on Censorship may have been the secretive Lyons Forum: a board of 48 conservative politicians and church leaders. Fifteen front-bench ministers are on the panel; membership is restricted to Coalition MPs. The group was the main drive behind the reversal of the NT euthanasia laws; other items on their agenda include: banning abortion, retracting birth technologies from gay and lesbian couples, and cleaning up Triple-J FM's image by revising its playlist. Goodbye Regurgitator, hello Donny Osmond?

Fighting for the right to retain R-rated material is one thing the computer games industry never had the chance to do. The games classifications guidelines stop at the MA-rating, under which shoot-em-ups like the temporarily banned Duke Nuke'em 3D are placed. As I write this, a new MA-rated game called Carmageddon has stirred up fresh controversy. Its release has coincided with the Victorian Transport Accident Commission's newest and most graphic safety awareness TV ad, which shows a pedestrian being run down in a 60 kph zone. This just happens to be one of the main goals in Carmageddon. Ironically, the commercial itself was censored when it was given an MA-rating, meaning it can only be shown after 9:30pm.

The editor of Melbourne's Sun Herald was quick to mention the existence of these "grotesquely horrible games" in relation to nine recent stabbings. "Freedom of expression is an important part of our democratic system," he said. "But preventing the corruption of young minds must be our first priority."

There is a perception that the computer games market is a kids-only domain - a view the government also applies to the comic book market, although to date several titles have contravened the guidelines. Because of this, Australian Customs regularly opens shipments of comics from overseas in a attempt to seize adult titles which test the limits of the classification system. Spore Whores for example, a horror comic produced by two Sydney-based artists and published by Eros Comix in the US, has had all three issues banned for their depictions of extreme sexual violence. At present, rumours regarding the compulsory classification of comics abound. If this were to happen, the added costs would cripple the comic retailer's already slim profit margins.

The letter of the law also condemned a widely-copied and Internet-available shoplifting article in the La Trobe University student newspaper. It's editors are now facing criminal charges in Victoria. In contrast, the The Unabomber Manifesto was passed by the censors. One assumes that it was more philosophical motivated.

As reported elsewhere and everywhere, the Internet is undergoing a rigorous evaluation by authorities both here and across the world. For the latest news on Australian Net censorship, an area too complex to cover here, check out Irene Graham's massive website at www.thehub.com.au/~rene/liberty, or Electronic Frontiers Australia's home turf at www.efa.org.au. To access the OFLC's rating database, where you'll find multiple entries for The Rock among others, go to www.oflc.gov.au.

The state and federal governments are having difficulty coming to terms with the vast and amorphous nature of the Internet, a true multimedia information source comprised of text, pictures, audio, live conversations and even video. The ongoing digitisation of the world's communication systems merely turns the Internet into even more of a moving target, and as such, it is the Holy Grail of the control-obsessed.

Yes, censorship is a word, and it's a big one - not in terms of its physical size or its amazing etymology - but in terms of the way we think, live our lives and treat our fellow citizens. Stay vigilant and informed, lest things change irrevocably for the worse.