SamoaFilm Control Act 1978, exhibitor and lender licensing and film classification
Film Control Act 1978, No. 26 (Samoa)
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived . Publisher's page: https://www.paclii.org/ws/legis/consol_act_2020/fca1978147.pdfIn force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Film Control Board and Principal Censor
- Obligation class
- Age verification, Licensing
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Hold a licence from the Film Control Board before exhibiting or lending a film; the Board determines licence classes, which include internet or other computer-based suppliers.
- Do not exhibit a film contrary to its classification by the Principal Censor: either general exhibition, or exhibition restricted to a specified class of persons only (persons of or over the age of 5 years) or to specified purposes or occasions only.
- If you own, manage or occupy exhibition premises, display the Principal Censor's certificate notifying the public of the film's classification.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Section 10(2) and 10(2A) make it an offence to exhibit or lend a film without a licence, or contrary to a licence's terms, punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding 100 penalty units (WST $10,000) for a company or 50 penalty units (WST $5,000) or imprisonment not exceeding 1 year, or both, for an individual. Section 26 separately makes it an offence to exhibit a film contrary to Part 4's censorship and classification requirements, punishable by a fine not exceeding 20 penalty units (WST $2,000) for an individual or 50 penalty units (WST $5,000) for a company. No provision states a term of imprisonment for a section 26 offence.
Penalty structure
Section 10(2) caps the licensing offence at 100 penalty units for a company or 50 penalty units, or up to 1 year's imprisonment, or both, for an individual. Section 26's classification and censorship offence carries a lower cap of 50 penalty units for a company or 20 penalty units for an individual. Samoa fixes the penalty unit at WST $100 under section 4 of the Fines (Review and Amendment) Act 1998, so the licensing cap is WST $10,000 for a company and WST $5,000 for an individual, and the classification cap is WST $5,000 for a company and WST $2,000 for an individual.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- WST
- Fixed cap
- 10,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
The Act requires an exhibitor or lender to hold a licence (section 10) and to display the Principal Censor's certificate or label the film (section 21), and it imposes no log or record on the licensee. The only record it requires is the register of films the Principal Censor keeps in his or her own office under section 20(1)(b), which is the regulator's own file and not an operator's duty.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 10 requires a person to hold a licence from the Film Control Board before exhibiting or lending a film, and section 10(3) lets the Board determine licence classes for exhibitors including broadcast, cable or satellite television service providers, picture theatres, educational institutions, and internet or other computer-based suppliers.
Section 19 requires the Principal Censor, on approving a film for public exhibition, to classify it either for general exhibition or for exhibition restricted to a specified class of persons only, being persons of or over the age of 5 years, or for specified purposes or occasions only, and section 19(2) bars exhibiting a film contrary to that classification.
Section 3A makes the Act binding on the Government, and section 21 requires the owner, manager, or occupier of exhibition premises to display the Principal Censor's certificate notifying the public of the film's classification.
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