11/06/2009

A century after its creation, film censorship may finally be abolished in Sweden. This was one of the key recommendations in a report commissioned by the Swedish government, published last Tuesday.

Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce film censorship in 1911 and one of the last democracies not to have elminated it, unlike its neighbouring countries. The Swedish film censorship Board, Statens biografbyrån in Stockholm, has not banned or cut a film for adults since Martin Scorsese’s Casino in 1995.

Yet in a digital era in which films are viewed in so many different forms, forcing distributors to submit their films to a censorship board seemed obsolete, and critics of the archaic system have for a long time lobbied to abolish censorship and check only those films with an age limit of 15, as exists in most other countries.

The key recommendations of the new report written by Marianne Eliason are the following:
- film distributors are free to submit films for classification, and those that are not classified are automatically restricted to the under 15;
- the four existing age limits remain: barntillåten (for all ages) 7, 11, 15;
- a new body will be created to protect children and youth, which will oversee the film classification for children under 15.

The new proposals will be submitted for comments to the government and will then be presented to the Swedish Parliament. The new system might be introduced in 2011.

In Europe, France has one of the most liberal policies towards film viewing restriction, contrary to Ireland, one of the strictest.