Book’s ban ‘in public interest’
Complete freedom of expression is impossible in a society that also allows censorship, says the man who has singlehandedly shut down sales of teen novel Into the River.
Don Mathieson, president of the Film and Literature Board of Review, said an interim restriction order – which makes it a crime to supply, display or distribute the award-winning book – was ‘‘in the public interest’’.
‘‘I’m just applying an act of Parliament . . . It’s impossible to have complete 100 per cent freedom of expression . . . and that’s the tension we all have to live with and if anybody hasn’t got the brains to see that, then, I’m sorry . . . "
Mathieson, speaking publicly for the first time since he issued his restriction order, said he had read Into the River ‘‘sufficiently recently to have a detailed knowledge of it’’.
‘‘I can’t comment on the merits of the book. It may have considerable merit and the board will decide whether it has or not. But the question is not how good a bit of literature it is, but how does the act apply to it?’’
His ruling remains in place until the next meeting of the review board, scheduled for October 2.
Into the River, by Aucklander Ted Dawe, centres on an East Coast Maori boy who wins a scholarship to a boys’ boarding school in Auckland.
In 2013, after it won Book of the Year at the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards, Christian lobby group Family First applied for an R18 classification and shrink-wrap covering.
The group said the book dealt with graphic sexual content, paedophilia, and the misuse of adult power. It glorified the taking of drugs and contained ‘‘extensive’’ use of the ‘‘c’’ and ‘‘f’’ words.
For the next two years, the book bounced between the Classifications Office and the Film and Literature Review Board. It was variously classified as being more suitable for audiences over 16; objectionable to anyone under the age of 14; and then last month, an ‘‘unrestricted’’ read.
That decision, by the Classifications Office, prompted Family First to request the interim restriction order – which can, under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classifications Act 1993, be granted solely by the board of review president.
Mathieson’s order, granted on September 3, means individuals and organisations (including schools and libraries) who knowingly supply the book, are liable for fines of up to $3000 and $10,000 respectively.
Into the River was immediately withdrawn from book stores and is no longer available for purchase in New Zealand in electronic form.
But Mathieson says it’s wrong to refer to his decision as a ‘‘ban’’.
‘‘It’s an interim restriction. Banning is an emotive word.’’
Waikanae-based Mathieson is a QC and active Christian. He said detail about his personal background was ‘‘irrelevant’’.
In 2012, he was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to law and legal education. He has had 40 years as a barrister and was a Professor of Law at Victoria University, and Crown Counsel in the Crown Law Office.
He is the editor of the book Faith at Work, described by Castle Publishing as a ‘‘thoughtprovoking symposium discussing the relevance of Christianity in the workplace . . . Faith goes beyond the church on Sunday’’. Nauru is no closer to getting its New Zealand aid restored after a meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully and Nauru’s justice minister achieved little.
McCully finally met with David Adeang in the final hours of the Pacific Islands Forum in Port Moresby on Friday.
The two had been scheduled to meet to discuss the more than $1.2 million of funding that was put on hold by McCully last week following little progress by the Pacific Island nation to address concerns around its justice sector.
The funding makes up more than half of the nation’s total financial support from New Zealand, and following the meeting McCully was no closer to giving the aid support back.
He said there was an ‘‘understanding’’ between the two but no progress had been made on when Nauru would sort issues with its rule of law.
Earlier in the week McCully told media he had prioritised the meeting with Adeang while in Papua New Guinea.
‘‘Whether he wants to prioritise it is a matter for him. We did agree in a telephone conversation a week or so ago that we would meet here,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m sure he’s been very busy but I’ve been keeping space free and will continue to do so.’’
McCully didn’t think he had been ‘‘snubbed’’ by Nauru leaders leading up to the meeting and said he had briefly spoken with President Baron Waqa during the week.
‘‘We’ve got the current programme suspended and it will stay suspended until something changes. I’ve tried to convey New Zealand’s position in a careful and moderate manner – we haven’t rushed into this process, it’s about three months.’’
McCully had hoped a conversation with Adeang would get Nauru back on track and ‘‘restore international respect and credibility to their justice sector’’.
‘‘We don’t deny funding lightly.’’
New Zealand’s direct connection with the Pacific nation’s ongoing justice problems is Nauru Opposition MP Roland Kun, who has had his passport confiscated, making it impossible for him to be reunited with his family in Wellington.
While McCully has spoken with both Adeang and Waqa about Kun, he said it wasn’t about ‘‘one individual’’.