President gives new guidelines on "Adult Only" films

(August 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed officials of the Public Performance and Censor Board to prepare a programme to streamline the classification of cinematic creations.The President made this observation during a meeting with film directors and veteran artistes at the Temple Trees on Tuesday.

According to a release issued by the President's media unit, high quality creative works would not be censored and only movies with lewd content would be banned.

The artistes present at the occasion noted that the importation of obscene movies was not only a threat to their efforts to maintain a decent local cinema industry but also went against all local traditions and culture in the country.

The artistes had reiterated the importance of the Public Performance and Censor Board to strictly implement laws against the importation, display and production of obscene movies.

They also pointed out that such movies that had been approved by the board about four years ago, had to be re-examined as they were being being shown at theatres intermittently.

A decision was reached to formulate guidelines within a week after receiving the view of all film directors, in order to classify films appropriately.

-Sri Lanka Guardian