Reader mailbag: censorship edition

Loyal reader Lliam Munro sends me the following:

Hi, Eric.
I know you periodically blog about censorship so I thought I’d alert you to this in case you’d not seen it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9018880/Retailer-fined-over-banned-movies 

I wondered what sort of movie would get banned in NZ so checked IMDB for the two films that generated the fine, which were Megan Is Missing and I Spit on Your Grave.

Without debating the artistic merits of the films, neither of which score very well on IMDB, I did think it noteworthy that one of the banned films Megan Is Missing, which is apparently a found footage film about two girls being murdered by a psycho they meet online, is endorsed by a father whose daughter was murdered by someone she met online and who has become an advocate for online safety.  He thinking it should be required viewing for teenage girls.

So, I thought it was interesting that in New Zealand, Fishpond are being fined $4,200 for providing access to a film that the father of a murdered daughter thinks could raise awareness of safe online behaviour.  Admittedly, by the sound of it, you’d be just as likely to scar your daughter for life, but I still found it noteworthy.

Cheers,
Lliam Munro

I'm not likely to watch either. But I hate that I can't watch either. This is entirely inside-the-asylum kind of stuff. How much better are we really than parts of Alabama that ban sex toys?