The Respondent screened the film Death Wish II at 23:00 on Saturday 25 September. The 
main character of the film, Charles Bronson, in vigilante style persecutes the rapists of his female house manager and his daughter. He kills them one after another. The opening scenes vividly and explicitly show the scenes of rape of the employee and later on there are scenes showing the rape of the daughter, who then runs away and jumps through a window and is impaled by an iron fence before she reaches the ground.
In 1982 the Publications Appeal Board passed the film with an age restriction of 2-18 years plus eighteen cuts concerning the rape scenes.
The only warning that this film was directed at adult audiences was contained in a eighteen restriction which was shown on the screen at the beginning of the film for about 1½ minutes. The Commission held that the Respondent should have taken much more steps to inform the potential viewers of this film. It should have included a classification referring to sex, nudity, language and violence.
The Respondent was reprimanded for this serious omission and cautioned to introduce a classification system as soon as possible.
The Commission expressed serious doubts as to whether this kind of film, which combined vigilante with scenes of sexual violence, should have been screened at all. The Commission called upon the four television stations under its jurisdiction to seriously reconsider their planning in this regard. The high incidence of rape in South Africa as well as vigilante threats and activities, demand a rethink of policy in this regard.