Overview

Barry Ronge says: In my career as a film reviewer I often crossed paths - and a sword or two - with Prof. Kobus van Rooyen at the Publications Appeal Board. It was during the height of the Nationalist Party's draconian censorship decisions. It was fascinating to see his insight beyond the immediate situation and how his practical, softly-spoken arguments led to landmark decisions. He broadened the space for honesty and topicality, and I remember, with awe, his championship of the Biko film Cry Freedom. Prof. van Rooyen was looking ahead with lucid clarity to a rapidly changing future. I believe the battle he fought then, has paved a path for the South African film industry that led to films like Tsotsi and Gangster's Paradise: Jeruslema and that current young film-makers have their freedom and opportunities in South Africa because of his fortitude.

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9781869194154

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Many books decrying the ills of censorship have been written by its victims but not until now a book by a censor setting forth his persistent and sometimes personally risky efforts to limit the scope of censorship in a repressive society. That the book is gracefully written, easily understood by non-lawyers, and ultimately inspiring makes it all the more indispensable.

A member of several print and broadcasting standards boards at various times, Van Rooyen describes the different stages that the Appeal Board went through after it was formed in 1974 to buffer the different approaches to protecting public decency by the South African Supreme Court and the censorship Board established in 1963. Among his topics are moral clampdown 1963-75, the scope of nudity in the 1980s, religious fervor ignored 1980-89, the end of an era 1990, and freedom 1994-2011.

Many books decrying the ills of censorship have been written by its victims but not until now a book by a censor setting forth his persistent and sometimes personally risky efforts to limit the scope of censorship in a repressive society. That the book is gracefully written, easily understood by non-lawyers, and ultimately inspiring makes it all the more indispensable. A member of several print and broadcasting standards boards at various times, Van Rooyen describes the different stages that the Appeal Board went through after it was formed in 1974 to buffer the different approaches to protecting public decency by the South African Supreme Court and the censorship Board established in 1963. Among his topics are moral clampdown 1963-75, the scope of nudity in the 1980s, religious fervor ignored 1980-89, the end of an era 1990, and freedom 1994-2011.

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