Bill Hastings

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Bill Hastings

William Kenneth Hastings has been New Zealand's Chief Censor since 1999.

Hastings is New Zealand's tenth Chief Censor. Born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, he holds a BA from the University of Trinity College, University of Toronto, law degrees from Osgoode Hall Law School and the London School of Economics, and is a practising barrister. Before becoming Chief Censor, he was Senior Lecturer in Law (teaching Legal System and International Law), Deputy Dean of Law, and a member of the governing Council, at Victoria University of Wellington. He was also briefly the Video Recordings Authority in 1994, a member of the Indecent Publications Tribunal from 1990 to 1994 and Deputy President of the Film and Literature Board of Review from 1995 to 1998.

He was appointed Deputy Chief Censor in 1998 by the Governor-General of New Zealand on the recommendation of the Jenny Shipley-led National coalition government. He was appointed Chief Censor by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Helen Clark-led Labour coalition government for a three-year term in 1999, a one-year term in 2002, another three-year term in 2003 and a third three-year term late in 2006.

In 2002, Hastings appeared in the public eye when he made censorship decisions on highly controversial films, particularly Baise-moi and Visitor Q, both of which were scheduled for screening at the Beck's Incredible Film Festival. In 2003, Hastings again appeared in the public eye when the computer game Manhunt was banned by his office, making its possession in New Zealand illegal. Following a meeting in Toronto on December 22, 2003 between Hastings and officials from the Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Business Services, Manhunt became the first computer game in Ontario to be classified as a film and restricted to adults in February 2004.

Apart from his professional role, some have taken issue with one aspect of his personal life in particular: Hastings is openly gay.^[1] Some of these critics include the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards; convicted paedophile Graham Capill, former Leader of the Christian Heritage Party; Brian Tamaki in the "Media: The New Witchcraft" section of a DVD produced by the Destiny Church for the 2005 general election; Peter Brown MP, Deputy Leader of the New Zealand First Party; and Pastor Ralph Ovadal's Pilgrims Covenant Church, a fundamentalist Christian church in Monroe, Wisconsin.^[2] Indeed, one commentator has said that Hastings' gay identity "has become a valuable touchstone, frequently revealing the real agenda of certain pro-censorship pressure groups."

The Society for the Promotion of Community Standards in particular has alleged that Hastings is a 'gay activist' who promotes homosexuality and promiscuity by giving liberal classifications to films that it believes should be banned.^[3] Analysis of the 101 publications whose classifications have been reviewed by the Film and Literature Board of Review between 1995 and 2006 however reveals that the OFLC under Hastings has been found to be too liberal with classifications in only 3.5% of the appeals - in contrast to 27% for his predecessor, Kathryn Paterson.^[4] The Board of Review has upheld 82% of OFLC decisions made under Hastings' regime.^[5] Ironically, the only two appeals won by the Society (of 15 sought) occurred when Hastings was Deputy President of the Board of Review.^[5] ^[6]

The Chief Censor is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the Office of Film and Literature Classification.