Film Censorship Act 2002
FILM CENSORSHIP ACT 2002
AKTA PENAPISAN FILEM 2002
Act 620 · consolidated to 1 Jan 2006 · 36 pp
What this does to artists
No film may be distributed, exhibited or possessed in Malaysia unless the Board of Film Censors has approved it. That includes short films, documentaries, music videos and, on the Board's own reading, material screened at festivals and in galleries. Approval is the gate; classification is the tariff.
Section 6 catches possession, not just exhibition. The Appeal Committee under s.16 is the first real remedy and is chronically under-used by filmmakers.
What to read first
Section numbers read out of the AGC text itself
Where this one bites
Post a set, reel or performance video
Uploading is reproduction and communication to the public, and then four separate speech regimes sit on top of…
ScenarioShoot and screen a film or documentary
Approval is the gate, a FINAS licence is the price of admission, and possession alone is an offence.…
ScenarioStopped, raided, shut down or arrested
This is a frightening place to be, and it usually has more give in it than it feels like. Most of these turn o…
Full arrangement of sections 56 sections · show / hide
Extracted from the AGC PDF on this page.
Subsidiary legislation
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The law changes. Each Act reproduced here is the Attorney General’s Chambers’ consolidated reprint and carries the date it was consolidated to; amendments made after that date do not appear in the text, and the authoritative version of any Malaysian law is the one published in the Federal Gazette. Subsidiary legislation, state enactments and local authority by-laws may also apply to your situation and are largely outside this library.
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