Industry Concern Over Magazine Censorship Bill

A Bill to be presented before Parliament today is causing concern amongst the magazine industry. The Bill proposed by Peter Luff, MP for Worcester, calls for magazines to be required to publish minimum readership ages on their covers.

Magazine industry body the Periodical Publishers Association has dismissed the proposal as “unnecessary and dangerous.” PPA chief executive Ian Locks said, “Quite clearly this is a proposal that could not, in law, be limited to one section of the Press. If implemented, it would have to cover newspapers, which are read by children, and frequently contain magazines for children, and presumably books as well.”

Any proposal to require minimum ages to be published would need policing; this would result in a Board of Censors, similar to that for films and videos, being set up to rate each daily edition of newspapers and weekly and monthly magazines, say the PPA. Publishers have met with Luff to explain the actions they already take to ensure teenage magazines are read by those intended and what further steps might be taken. Discussions are centred on ensuring titles are correctly positioned on newsagents’ shelves and that models used and cover lines chosen accurately depict the interests of target markets.

“The price of getting it wrong is very high. When major retailers delist a title as unsuitable, that is a very powerful sanction. But in the end it has to be up to parents to ensure that what their children read is suitable for their age group, and that individual child,” said Ian Locks.

Ian Locks, PPA: 0171 379 6268