Apr 22, 2007, 6:24 GMT
Bangkok - Thailand's ministry of culture has drafted a new Thai Film Act to be submitted to national legislators in an effort to update the kingdom's currently archaic censorship system, media reports said Sunday.
'It's now ready for the NLA (National Legislative Assembly),' senior ministry official Ladda Tangsuphachitold The Nation newspaper. 'The major change is that it will introduce a film-rating system.'
The Thai film industry has been petitioning governments for decades to amend the current Thai Film Act that was promulgated in 1930, two years before the country opted for a democractic system under a constitutional monarchy.
Under existing legislation, Thai and foreign films are subject to appraisals by a strict censorship board, dominated by senior police officers, that have a reputation for cutting out all explicit sex scenes and anything deemed offensive to the national religion, Buddhism, or themes thought politically sensitive.
The industry has been lobbying to have the current censorship system replaced by film ratings, such as 'R' for films restricted to adults.
But some are already worried that the amended film act may worsen the environment for artistic freedom rather than improve it.
'It could be even worse, because they'll have both the rating system and, probably, the censors,' film critic Suparb Rimthephhathip warned.
The debate over film censorship became a news items last week when the award-winning Thai film 'Saeng Sattawat' (Syndromes and a Century) missed its local debut in Thai theatres on Thursday because Thailand's board of censors insisted on cutting several 'sensitive' scenes.
Apichatpong Weerasetthakul, the film's director, has decided to skip the local screening and push the film abroad instead.
Saeng Sattawat received awards at film festivals in France, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Australia.
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