Censorship in Samoa

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The United States Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Samoa states that:

"The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice and did not restrict academic freedom or the Internet. In general the independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction. The law stipulates imprisonment for any journalist who refuses to reveal a confidential source despite the issuance of a court order upon request from any member of the public at large. However, there has been no court case invoking this law." [1]

In May 2006, the film The Da Vinci Code was banned from local television stations in Samoa, as well as the country's only cinema. The government censorship office also prohibited the sale or rental of future VHS and DVD versions of the film. The primary objections to the film's content came from leaders of the Samoa Council of Churches, who attended a pre-screening. Alapati Lui Mataeliga, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Apia, said that The Da Vinci Code would "affect the belief of young people whose faith was not strong." The owner of the cinema, local businessman Maposua Rudolf Keil, opposes the ban as an infringement of the right to free expression. [2]