Motion Picture Commission : hearings before the Committee on Education, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, on bills to establish a Federal Motion Picture Commission (1978)

46 MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. Mr. Bush. I do not know that T used just that language, but I will be glad to tell you what I mean. The ideals of the German Gov- ernment go against absolute freedom of expression. Even the most harmless comics that perhaps infringe upon the dignity of a con stable or policeman are viewed witJi displeasure % the German censor and are suppressed. Now, that is one instance, and on the other hand the German censorship is not at all strict in such matters where we in this country would be very strict. In "painting out," if I am using the word properly, certain situations the German censors are allowed practically to go as far as they like, and the Eussian too, and also the French. But when it comes to what they call ridiculing human authority, down comes the club of censorship. Mr. Towner. You spoke of the German censor at one time and at another time of the Prussian censor. What is the fact with regard to it? Is it national or is it the German Empire that exercises the power or is it the individual States of the German Empire? Mr. Bush. I think they exercise concurrent jurisdiction. I think there is a censorship which is recognized in every part of the German Empire, but that does not supersede extra censorship that may be imposed by the political subdivisions of the empire. Mr. Towner. Then there hardly can be a concurrent censorship, because if the national power exercises it then there would be no right in the subordinate subdivisions of the empire to exercise it, so that there could not be a concurrent censorship. There might be concurrent jurisdiction in the matter of punishment, but not con- current censorship. Mr. Bush. Well, I will tell you, my source of knowledge has been travel through the countries and conversations with producers of motion pictures. One of these producers, I recall very distinctly, is the Continental Film Co., of Berlin, and the gentleman who has charge of that corporation told me that the Berlin censorship was accepted in almost every part of the Empire. Mr. Towner. Well, it mi^ht be accepted voluntarily, but it is not imposed by law. The committee, I am quite sure, would rather know what the laws are, if you could find out—that is, to what extent nations have gone in the exercise of the power of censorship. You could not tell us definitely now, could you? Mr. Bush. Yes; I could tell you that Russia has gone very far. Mr. Towner. Well, leave Kussia out of consideration. Mr. Bush. Well, then, I will be glad to tell you that France has no censorship at all. The only thing that the French law prohibits is the displaying of details of executions upon the screen, but other- wise there is no previous restraint imposed upon pictures made in France. Mr. Th.\cher. How about England ? Mr. Bush. In England they liave a very unique condition. Mr. Eedford, who for years had been censoring plays on the English stage, was requested by certain importers of motion pictures in England to see what he could do in order to have some national jurisdiction over motion pictures. Every little community in Eng- land saw fit to exercise its own notions of censorship, and that led to a good deal of confusion and harm and injury to the producers and importers. This I have from Mr. Bedford himself. I was in Eng- land last year and interviewed him and he told me that he went with