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On taking office, the new film censor, appointed in April 2003, declared that he wished to move away from a restrictive censorship process to a more positive guidance system. The first film he banned was Jonas Akerlund's Spun, which portrays a life of sex and drugs. However, his decision was overturned in a unanimous decision of the appeals board, which passed it without cuts but with an 18 certificate. Since then the film censor has announced plans to overhaul the current age classification system, which acts as a guide to parents. The censor plans to launch a web-site listing every movie passed...

The European Convention on Human Rights Bill, passed by the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) in June 2003, came into operation on 1 January 2004. Previously, although Ireland had played an active role in the drafting of the Convention and had been one of the first states to ratify it, it had not incorporated the Convention into domestic law. Ireland had been a dualist state in that the Convention, while binding on Ireland, was not binding in Ireland. Irish citizens who wished to avail of the Convention had to take their case to Strasbourg. Now, although the Convention has been incorporated into Irish...

On 23 December 2003, the Broadcasting (Funding) Act was promulgated into law. The purpose of the Act is, according to its long title, "to provide that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland prepare a scheme or schemes for the funding of grants to support certain television and radio programmes and projects out of an amount of 5 per cent of net receipts for television licence fees, to outline the objectives of a scheme and to provide for related matters". The types of programmes that will benefit under any scheme(s) to be established pursuant to the new Act are listed in s. 2(1). These comprise...

Bord Scannán na hÉireann /The Irish Film Board ("the Board") has warmly welcomed the decision of the Minister for Finance to continue tax relief for investment in the Irish film industry until the end of 2008 and his plan to increase the upper limit on investment to EUR 15 million per film from 2005. The Board is a statutory body whose remit is "to assist and encourage the making of films, and the development of a film industry in the State, having regard to the need for the expression of national culture through the medium of film-making". It deals with funding for the Irish film industry. Tax...

A number of recent legislative and other developments in Ireland are likely to affect the implementation of the country's freedom of information (FOI) legislation (see IRIS 1997-10: 8). On 11 April 2003, the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act was promulgated into law. One of the most significant amendments introduced by the Amendment Act was a considerable broadening of the definition of "Government" (for the purposes of determining exempt records ­ see further, Section 19 of the original 1997 FOI Act). This concept already included committees of Government, but Section 14 of the Amendment...