User:Jnestorius/IFCO

<Irish Film Classification Office <Film censorship in the Republic of Ireland

Historical ratings

 * Notes

The 2008 act made offence to supply videos to underage person; also replaced list of categories, but was that substantive or tidy-up/minor?

2021 survey of parents: "Most can name the main classifications, though it's common to forget 16 and/or refer to U rather than G. The majority have good awareness of what the classifications mean & the expectations that are set, with some caveats. For example
 * The addendum 'A' isn’t always understood
 * There’s some lack of clarity between expectations for PG & 12A
 * Many see 18 as quite a broad classification, which could refer to very problematic material or simply content that’s of more interest to adults. This means there's a danger it's underestimated as a classification by some.
 * There's no clear understanding of what differentiates between 15A and 16"

Special ratings
The following are:
 * restricted certificates prior to the 1965 introduction of standard age-limited certificates. The Appeal Board issued 11 limited certs, all after 1954; O'Hora issued two or three in 1959 but only one thereafter following intervention by Department assistant secretary Peter Berry. 1961 Dáil answer says 1956—7—8—9—60 censor/Board totals were 0/0—3/1—0/1—3/0—0/4 and "no prosecutions for breaches of the conditions", although Blackboard Jungle apparently got a 16s cert in 1956.
 * The Whistler (1944) had censor's over-16s cert overturned by Appeal Board
 * special certificates later than 1965, other than the standard age-limited certificates then in operation
 * In 2003 and 2004, some films had cert plus condition of warning about violence: 2003 5×15PG; 2004 1×PG, 1×12PG; 4×15PG "Such cautions will no longer be required, other than in exceptional circumstances, as the IFCO website provides a detailed information grid and comment box for all films classified." However, in 2006 Jackass Number Two had condition that notice be added to see website warning.
 * cases identified by Rockett where the officially issued certificate was accompanied by an unofficial agreement between the Censor's Office and the distributor to place additional restrictions on shows.

Chronology

 * Cinematograph Act 1909 repealed 1981
 * 1920 Crime films are a ‘danger to the reputation of cinema’
 * 1923 act
 * s. 10 amended 1909 act by disallowing local authorities from attaching to a cinema licence "any condition or restriction as to the character or nature of the pictures to be exhibited"
 * s. 11 requires fees to be enough to fund office but no more
 * educational films need cert but zero charge (from 1944; 1924 rate same reduced as "topical" etc. cf. UK E certificate non-BBFC). Also lower rate until 2004 for "travel", "topical", and "interest".
 * "By interest films is meant a variety of subjects which cannot be classified under such recognized headings as fiction, travel, or topical. They include wonderful inventions, little known industries, applied art, feats of engineering, and other events capable of effective illustration." "essentially early documentaries" "certain short films made between 1895 and the 1920s which aimed to amuse rather than inform" -- did censor define it as such in later years? May have applied only to short subjects?
 * dail/1924-03-05 minister spoke on industry complaint that fees were too high
 * Between the Devil and the Holy See documentary on first censor
 * Article 52 of EPO (number 1; SR&O 224 of 1939) added emergency-related refusal criteria ["would be prejudicial to the public safety or the preservation of the State or the maintenance of public order or would be likely to lead to a breach of the peace or to cause offence to the people of a friendly foreign nation"]. For such criteria, no restricted certificate was allowed, and appeal was to minister's nominee rather than appeal board.
 * EPO number 6 (SR&O 260 of 1939) allowed withdrawal of previous certs.
 * EPO 196 (1942) changed criteria to "would be prejudicial, directly or indirectly, to the public safety or to the preservation of the State" -- rest omitted, but Rockett says vague "indirectly" was broader than omitted details; also, no appeals at all, and other ministers than Justice could ban, notably Aiken and external affairs.
 * From the 1920s, the censor's detailed interpretation of statutory criteria for acceptability was kept secret from distributors and public.
 * In 1944, censor banned House of Frankenstein; said he would have given an over-16s cert but there was no mechanism for enforcing it. was this before or after he gave 16s to The Whistler and/or the board overturned?
 * "Despite the practice of refusing limited certificates it was only in 1945, for the first time, it was given official articulation. The Minister for Justice, Gerald Boland, told the Dail that it was the view of the Official Censor and the Appeal Board that such certificates would serve only to 'arouse unhealthy curiosity'."
 * Late 50s report on juvenile delinquency in Dublin stated: "Film censorship is reasonably effective for adults but there is a case for the adoption of some form of discrimination between the films suitable for all ages and those which might be harmful to juveniles."
 * Late 1950s–early 1960s impelled change: British New Wave cinema, many bannings frustrated Irish intellectuals; general increase in fraction of films receiving restricted rating in UK and then benned in Ireland led to a shortage of films in release. Horror films such as Roger Corman's, which got X in UK, were cut in Ireland to get general certs.
 * Censor cut trailers mentioning British "X certificate"; Irish version generally cut to achieve general version anyeay, but censor did not want to arouse morbid interest.
 * dail debates on age-limited certs
 * dail/1957-04-25
 * dail/1959-04-15
 * dail/1960-07-14
 * 1960 FG complaint that Du und mancher Kamerad, an East German Communist propaganda film, could not be banned dail/1960-05-17; minister said change might be unconstitutional dail/1960-05-24; mentioned similar complaint about British propaganda dail/1960-06-02
 * 1962 Dr No poster censored, bare female flesh covered with hand-painted black garments.
 * When a film was banned, the fact was not widely publicised in Ireland, but Of Human Bondage had been filmed in Ireland, so its 1964 banning caused a wider controversy about hypocrisy.
 * 1966: Ciaran Carty in the Sunday Independent criticised the over-21s rating and cuts to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, appeals board chair Ciaran Maguire had right of reply the following week. Carty began inferring the length of cuts made by noting discrepancies between the advertised UK running time of features and the actual Irish running time.
 * 1967: Ulysses banned; passed uncut in 2000 with 15 cert.
 * Irish Cult Movie Classics: Rocky Road To Dublin The Irish film censor told the filmmaker he regrettably could not ban his film because, as Lennon laster recounted, "Since there is no sex in the film, Peter, there is nothing I can do against you."
 * From 1960,to 1974, the vote on the Estimates for the Minister for Justice included a summary of the censor and Appeal Board's work the previous year.
 * 1970: distinct from re-shows after making IFCO-mandated cuts, distributors had since 1920s been resubmitting banned films on an adhoc basis, typically after unilaterally making cuts. But in 1960s films banned decades earlier not resubmitted so old ban meant no rep showings. A 1970 act regulated this by requiring a seven-year gap but not need for cuts.
 * Second Stage intro Dáil Seanad
 * 1971: Carty began publishing a monthly list in the Sunday Independent of cuts in films, gleaned from the distributors in the absence of co-operation from the Censor's Office.
 * June 1972 "after six and a half years of chaos, the Appeal Board was finally relieved of the huge backlog of work and its role quickly receded once again into the background."
 * 1974: Carty's list ceased because "the original need for it — to undermine a secretive and reactionary censorship system by exposure and ridicule — had passed".
 * 1978 How Judi Dench and Jeremy Irons shocked Ireland sez Langrishe, Go Down banned by censor, but TV play and coproduced by RTÉ. Broadcast RTÉ 8 Feb 1979 IT 1979/0208/Pg019
 * 1989: The video censorship act
 * required bans to be published in Iris Oifigiúil, unlike the unpublicised film bans.
 * The criteria for prohibition [1989 s.3(1)] are more extensive than in the 1923 act [1923 s. 7(2-3); replaced by 2008 s. 70(c) but still different from video, not amended].
 * The bill originally proposed only that videos be certified or rejected, no age limits. Any film with a cinema cert would be allowed a video cert.
 * The opposition wanted age limited certs, and the govt inserted them as advisory only at Dáil Report Stage as amendment 6, with debate having taken place alongside amendment 1.
 * Opposition amendment to define and prohibit "pornographic" (as distinct from "obscene or indecent", prohibited but undefined) was defeated.
 * did not cover possession (without intent to supply)
 * fees and exemption criteria different from cinema. I think (some) changes in fees required (2008) act, not mere SI
 * 1991 delay commencing 1989 act ascribed in part to need to add video viewing facilities to FCO. prohibition power commenced 1991.
 * By March 1992 54 videos had been banned under 1989 act. By July 1993 344. By Sep 1994 1,369.
 * 1992 act authorised assistant censors in relation to videos, due to increased flow of titles. By Sep 1994 there were one fulltime and 7 parttime assistants.
 * Second Stage intro
 * zzz Could FCO have unofficially started rating videos earlier than May 1994? Possibly illegal if ultra vires. Not mentioned in Annual Reports; 1994 says "Fees amounting to £114,800 were received in respect of video classification for the eight month period - May to December, 1994". Whereas 1993 only has prohibition orders, presumably referred by customs, garda, etc rather than applied by distributers. I wonder if any (a) referred for prohibition in 1993, viewed and not prohibited were (b) submitted for certification in 1994; if so did they have to be re-watched to gain certificate? Perhaps they took the standard fee but were able to speed up the 1994 decision by reading back over the 1993 file.
 * By 1992 54 videos had been banned under 1989 act.
 * Art galleries showing video art installations have sometimes informally consulted the IFCO and applied age limits if advised, without a formal certification.
 * 1996: Striptease poster restricted; censor banned; but appeals board allowed in newspapers and inside cinemas, but not outdoors. "the censor also vets all film advertising, including trailers, posters and publicity photos. It is unusual for the censor's decisions regarding posters to be referred to the Film Appeals Board."
 * 1996 Irish Film Centre planned to show Natural Born Killers after it was refused a certificate, but backed out after threat of legal action from the Department of Justice. Film clubs bypassing certificate requirement existed since the 1930s in a legal grey area. The Dept of Justice policy was to tacitly allow films which had not been submitted but protest at showing of films which had been refused certificates, especially if Dept considered the show was motivated by commercial rather than artistic concerns.
 * Crash announced for 1997 Dublin International Film Festival before censor had decided on certification.
 * 1997: Video library recording of Donnie Brasco was technically illegal because it was preceded by a trailer for Preaching to the Perverted which had not been submitted to the censor.
 * Freedom of Information Act 1997 did not apply retrospectively but nevertheless the Censor made the office's previously secret material available to researcher Kevin Rockett and subsequently in the National Archives of Ireland.
 * 1998: Christmas screening of It's A Wonderful Life at the Irish Film Centre was cast in doubt as it technically had no certificate; Censor expedited one free of charge.
 * TV3 intended to show Natural Born Killers in 2000, despite it having been refused a certificate in 1994. It said it cancelled the broadcast after the Department of Justice informed it the minister 'intended "to take legal remedies to prevent the proposed screening" unless he received an assurance that it would not go ahead without a proper certificate from the film censor'. TV3 questions the censor's "public exhibition" remit included broadcasting.
 * 2000: news report that Min Justice gave FCO permission to recruit inspector to visit video shops and libraries and report noncompliance to Garda.
 * 2000 (and maybe later?) censor's report included "educational", "travel", "topical", "interest", in cert breakdown table, though all but first were 0 count. OTOH total volume was in hours, not feet.
 * 2001 when changing 12/15 to 12/15PG, censor also removed English title "Film Censor" from certificates, leaving Irish Scrúdóir na Scannán (literally "Examiner of Films"). New film certificates introduced
 * 2001 Ulysses Premiere 33 Years After Being Made
 * New Irish film censor is appointed
 * 2002 Film Censor to view new thriller in cinemobile
 * 2004 9 Songs first certified explicit sex Sexually explicit film to get Irish release
 * 2004 fees switch from per foot to per minute; lower charge for minority films; higher fixed charge for ads and trailers. Per foot charge would be 2:5 for 16mm:35mm (36:90 feet per minute).
 * 2004 censor says "The previous ethos was not to explain decisions. But that was from another era. We have moved from the age of censorship to one of classification." -- about limited certs rather than bans. New website at ifco.ie
 * 2005 inspector hired after "some years" with none
 * 2005 New film cert campaign is launched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire first non G Potter
 * 2005 IFCO and Irish Film Institute organised simulated classification for Transition Year students; many gave The Family Stone a 12A rating whereas IFCO rating was lower at PG.
 * 2006 "the censor's office was involved in more than 50 court cases relating to illegal material on sale, while officials in the Revenue Commissioners seized more than 1,500 DVDs."
 * 2007: in a test case for hard core pornography, the owner of an adult store appealed to the High Court for certiorari of a 2004 prohibition order against a video (Anabolic Initiations # 5 ) on the grounds that the order did not give "adequate reasons". The censor had stated, "I am of opinion that, under s. 7(1)(c) of the Video Recordings Act, 1989, it is unfit for viewing because it would tend, by reason of the inclusion in it of obscene or indecent matter, to deprave or corrupt persons who might view it"; the Appeal Board "that the unanimous decision of the Censorship of Films Appeal Board is to affirm the decision of the Official Censor in the appeal". The High Court ruled that, although a statement of reasons was legally required, the provided recital of s. 7(1)(c) of the statute was sufficient.
 * Note that all SIs setting fees have included a charge for "One copy of the reasons furnished by the Official Censor under section 8(2)" ['When notice of an appeal under this section has been given the Official Censor shall furnish to the Appeal Board his reasons in writing for the decision appealed against, and shall furnish, on payment of the prescribed fees, copies of such reasons to every person who is entitled to appear and be heard at the hearing of such appeal.']
 * Censor bans video game for first time Manhunt 2
 * 2007 select Committee Stage of 2008 act inserts and explains amendments to 1923-6 censor and 1989 video acts
 * 2008 act
 * "[Irish] Film Censor's Office" renamed "Irish Film Classification Office" zzz I think "IFCO" dates from 2004 website, where C was still Censor
 * arthouse DVD fees reduced as per 2004 cinema fees
 * In 2008 an adult video arcade in Galway was reported by a city councillor, who said that the IFCO was investigating; the following year the premises' landlord was fined, not under censorship law, but for allowing the tenant to operate an unauthorised cinema.
 * In 2009 the IFCO decommissioned its 1945 screening room in Harcourt Terrace, thereafter using the Light House Cinema in Smithfield.
 * In 2009 IFCO website extended consumer information from cinema to video; added e-procurement facility for distributors.
 * In 2009, a Galway video shop owner fined €1500 for having 5 prohibited videos; in Carlow, 1500 banned DVDs were seized from sex shops but no fines were issues as the ownership was hidden behind shell companies.
 * In 1990s, the first Assistant Classifiers were appointed on open-ended contracts; later replacements had fixed-term contracts. In 2016, a panel was established, whose members were to be recruited by the Public Appointments Service. Two Assistant Classifiers had open-ended contracts terminated and were not rehired; they lost a court case impugning the equity of the changes.
 * 2023 soft news reports drawn from Freedom of Information requests on IFCO correspondence with deidentified members of the public
 * 2023 Kissane symbolically changed colour filling the O in IFCO logo from red (18s) to green (PG)
 * 2024 "Future film classifications in the Republic could include warnings on self-harm or bullying in movies" irishtimes.com Draft-IFCO-Classification-Guidelines-July-2024.pdf 'The most significant change is the replacement of the “Drugs” heading in the classification structure with a broader one “Dangerous Behaviour”. This reflects the feedback that issues such as self-harm and bullying should receive greater prominence in consumer advice'

General commentary

 * Hugh Linehan 2002: First and long Censor recruitment process, assistant censor looses out; club system workaround; other legal anomalies; no website
 * Origins of Irish film censorship
 * irishtimes.com/it-s-time-for-ireland-to-stop-compulsory-film-classification-1.4532122
 * irishtimes/2023/12/13/ireland-used-to-ban-films-now-its-more-relaxed-than-britain-or-the-us-about-whats-on-screen-why/
 * Film stats 2000–2012 (classifications, bans, fees) oireachtas~question~2013-05-28~507
 * https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/screening-the-sexational-a-century-of-irish-film-censorship
 * 2023 100 years of Film Censorship Ireland and podcast