TV3 has abandoned plans to screen the film Natural Born Killers tonight after being threatened with an injunction by the Department of Justice.
The station intended showing the notoriously violent film - refused a certificate by the censor on its 1994 release - at 10.45 p.m. But it confirmed last night that the movie had been withdrawn from the schedule following intervention by the department.
TV3's director of regulatory and legal affairs, Mr Mark Deering, said the station had been notified that the minister intended "to take legal remedies to prevent the proposed screening" unless he received an assurance that it would not go ahead without a proper certificate from the film censor, Mr Sheamus Smith.
A Department of Justice spokesman said: the withdrawal of the film was "not a story" and added: "We pointed out that the film had been refused a certificate in October 1994 and the appeals board subsequently upheld that decision, and they agreed not to show it."
Directed by Oliver Stone from a script by Quentin Tarantino, the film has never been shown in Irish cinemas. In 1995, the Irish Film Centre in Dublin abandoned plans to defy the ban, fearing a Garda raid and possible closure of the State-funded complex. A scheduled screening was halted at the last moment after the board of the Film Institute of Ireland, which runs the centre, was told by the Department of Justice that the Attorney General was briefing barristers on the matter.
Mr Deering said he believed that Britain's Channel 5 had broadcast the film, and could have been viewed in parts of Ireland which can pick up the signal. Questioning whether the censor had jurisdiction over television showings, he confirmed TV3 would pursue the matter with the regulatory authorities, and possibly in the courts, next week.
Mr Smith said the Act referred to the "public exhibition" of a film. A film could be resubmitted to the censor after seven years, he added.
Mr Deering said it was not usual for the censor to intervene in television broadcasts. He added that the version of the film TV3 wished to show was an edited one. The station will show a message explaining the schedule change, and the film The Onion Field will be broadcast instead.
