Cook Islands

Films and Censorship Act 1985, No. 1 (Cook Islands)

Applies to private

Sections 4 and 5 require a person renting or exhibiting film to the public to hold a renter's or exhibitor's licence issued by the Minister. Sections 16 to 18 require every film to be approved by a censor before public exhibition, and the censor may approve a film generally, refuse approval, require excisions, or approve it subject to exhibition being restricted to a specified class of persons. Section 23 extends the same approval requirement to video tapes sold or rented to the public.

Sections 28 to 31 give the censor the function of classifying a document or sound recording as indecent, as not indecent, or as indecent unless its circulation is restricted to a specified age or class of persons, considering among other things the age groups to or among whom it is likely to be distributed.

Section 32 makes it an offence to sell, deliver by way of hire, or possess for sale or hire any indecent document or sound recording, and separately an offence to sell, deliver, give, exhibit, or offer to a person under the age of 18 years any document or sound recording which is indecent. Section 25 makes it an offence for a renter's licence holder to rent a video tape otherwise than in accordance with the section 23 approval requirement. The Act is administered by the Crown Law Office through an appointed Chief Censor.

Source: Full text of law