What Are the NCROPA's Aims?

The NCROPA believes that every adult should have an inalienable right to see, read and hear whatever he of she chooses for him or herself. This country's present out-moded, puritanical and repressive laws on censorship deny for us this right and must, therefore, be drastically reformed.

Virtually no really reliable or credible evidence has been produced that so- called "obscene" material ("obscene" in this context invariably means sexually explicit), of whatever kind, is harmful. On the other hand evidence that it is harmless, and, indeed, often positively helpful, is massive and overwhelming. Every major investigation undertaken into the subject over the past 25 years has come to the same conclusion, including our own country's distinguished Home Office Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship (the Williams Committee) in 1979. They were unanimous in agreeing that so-called "obscene" or "pornographic" or "sexually explicit" material (call it what you will) should be freely available to consenting adults.

The more recent 1990 Home Office Research Report, "Pornography: Impacts and Influences", (by Dr Guy Cumberbatch and Dr Dennis Howlitt), also found no evidence of any link between the availability of "pornography" and sexual crime, and effectively endorsed all previous findings that sexually explicit material is harmless.

The NCROPA maintains, furthermore, that sexually explicit material provides a source of harmless pleasure for millions, is often a very helpful adjunct to sexual relationships, both in and out of marriage, and serves as a most welcome substitute sexual release for anyone when and where a suitable sexual partner is not available or possible, especially among the sexually disadvantaged, deprived or disabled (or differently-abled, as they now often prefer to be regarded).

The NCROPA supports measures for the "protection" of children (without necessarily accepting that children would, in fact, be "at risk" or "in danger", as the word "protection" implies), and also certain very limited measures for the "protection" of those adults who do not wish to be forcibly affronted by material which they would deem offensive.

In practical terms this would mean the complete repeal of the 1959 and 1964 Obscene Publications Acts, as well as considerable amending legislation to a number of other relevant Acts (eg, the Post Office Act 1953, the Customs Consolidation Act 1876, the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, the Video Recordings Act 1984, the Cinemas Act 1985, etc). However, like the Williams Committee, we believe that the very limited censorship legislation we envisage should be contained in one new comprehensive statute. The NCROPA has already produced the draft for such a statute called the "Freedom of Expression Bill".

Full details of our principles and objectives are contained in our written submission to the Williams Committee and in The Williams Report: An Appraisal, NCROPA's subsequent response tot he findings of the Williams Committee.

This page was created on the 5th December 1998, and last altered on the 6th December 1998