The civil rights organisation AfriForum says government’s attempts to push through a new censorship law is unacceptable. In a letter to the Film and Publications Board (FBP), AfriForum’s legal team submitted that the Draft Classification Guidelines for the Classification of Films, Games and Certain Publications, grant overly broad powers to the FPB that are inconsistent with the Films and Publications Act 65 of 1996. The draft guidelines cannot grant more power to the FPB than the Act itself. .
The legislation comes at a time when improved internet distribution in the country has enabled wider access to a range of online content generation tools such as blogs, personal websites and other forms of expression through social media platforms.