Pornographic Import Charge Rebuffed (Press, 6 November 1979)

Miss Patricia Bartlett, an anti-pornography campaigner in New Zealand, has received support from her Danish counterpart, Mr Svend Age Laursen, in her conflict with Christchurch bookseller Mr Gordon Tait. Tait accused Bartlett of attempting to import a Danish pornography book titled "Week-end Sex." In response to Tait's allegations, Laursen, who is the president of the Danish Society Against the Indoctrination of Children, defended Bartlett in a letter to The Press, clarifying that "Week-end Sex" was recommended for background reading for Danish secondary school students. Laursen stressed that Bartlett was unaware of the book until it was seized by New Zealand customs. He explained that he had sent the book to Bartlett to inform her society about the actual state of permissive education in Denmark. The book was subsequently seized by customs officials and brought before the Indecent Publications Tribunal for a hearing on 16 March 1978. The Tribunal classified the book as “hard-core pornography.” Although Bartlett was technically the importer, Laursen noted that she had not requested the book and only received it unsolicited as an example of sex education material used by Danish educational authorities. After the tribunal hearing, Bartlett claimed that the book was the most obscene she had ever seen. Nevertheless, she sought a specialist restriction classification that would allow the book to be used by her group, the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards. During the tribunal proceedings, she explained that her intention was to ensure her society understood the extreme levels of depravity that sex education could reach. Ultimately, the tribunal ruled that the book was “plainly indecent” and denied Bartlett's request for a restricted classification. In defence of his position, Tait asserted that Bartlett became the importer of the book when she pursued this special restriction classification. He pointed out that the New Zealand Booksellers Association had reached out to the Royal Danish Consulate General to verify whether the book was indeed used as background reading in Danish schools, receiving a categorical denial. Tait remarked that while the New Zealand Indecent Publications Tribunal deemed the book indecent, Bartlett was attempting to disregard the outcome of the tribunal and the evidence presented. This ongoing dispute highlights the tensions surrounding issues of censorship, education, and societal values regarding sexual content in literature.

The text on this page is created, in the most part, using Generative AI and so may contain errors or omissions. It is supplied to you without guarantee or warranty of correctness. If you find an error or would like to make a content suggestion please get in contact

The text on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 New Zealand