Bahamas News

A group of senior lecturers at The College of The Bahamas is claiming that academic freedom in the country has been assaulted following a recent decision by the Plays and Films Control Board that has again prevented the public screening of the controversial film “Brokeback Mountain.”

The lecturers, from the School of Social Sciences and the School of English Studies, had proposed to hold a free public study session examining the topic “Church, State and Human Rights: The Politics of Censorship” in response to the board’s initial decision to ban the film about a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys and their lives over the years.

The board banned the film in March citing that it “shows extreme nudity and profanity and we feel that it has no value for the Bahamian public.”

The session, according to the lecturers, was directed at “informing the public of some of the important constitutional, political and national developmental issues and problems surrounding the work of The Plays and Films Control Board.”

The discussion would also incorporate a study session involving a panel of academic presenters on the general topic of censorship, after short excerpts were shown.

On one of the evenings of the study sessions the lecturers had hoped to show the film in its entirety, to be followed by a question and answer period.

“As a part of the preparations for the study session, the senior lecturers involved applied for permission from The Bahamas Plays and Films Control Board to use the film in their public study session. This request was denied by the board,” according to a statement released by Senior Lecturer Michael Stevenson; Dr Ian Strachan, chairperson School of English Studies; and Jessica Minnis, chairperson School of Social Sciences.

However, Ministry of National Security Permanent Secretary Mark Wilson, under whose portfolio the board falls, said once a film is banned it cannot be shown for public viewing.

“If they wanted to show it for educational purposes to the students of COB it would be none of our business; we wouldn’t get into it at all. They expressly said that they wanted to show it for public viewing,” he told the Guardian yesterday.

He said that reasoning led to the board’s denial.

Mr Stevenson, one the members of the organising committee, believes “academic freedom in The Bahamas has been assaulted by the recent decision of the censor board.”

“The right to receive and impart ideas is vital in most circumstances, but particularly important in an academic context,” he said.

Dr Strachan added: “If COB is ever to become a university it has to be expected (if not demanded) that our scholars take thoroughly investigated critical positions.”

Jessica Minnis said it was very likely that the public study session on censorship would still be held, “but we will not have the benefit of putting our study in its proper context, which was really the point of wanting to show excerpts from Brokeback Mountain.” The study session is expected to take place on June 16.