Manhunt case to go to High Court?

Rockstar is still celebrating its successful appeal to get Manhunt 2 classified – but the British Board of Film Classification has warned that it may go to the most powerful judiciary in the country to ensure the game never hits High Street shelves.

The Video Appeals Committee upheld Rockstar’s plea on Monday, with a majority of jurors supporting the controversial publisher’s case.

But at the time of going to press, the BBFC was yet to receive the report of the VAC proceedings – and told MCV that it could yet take the case to a judicial review if it finds anything it considers unlawful.

BBFC spokesperson Sue Clark said: We need to see the judgement papers from the VAC case before we even consider giving Manhunt 2 a rating. If we spot anything problematic, we may decide to take our case to the High Court as a judicial review, which would lead to Manhunt 2’s release being frozen in the UK.

Our main concern is to ensure a lawful outcome. It needs to be the right decision within the UK’s legal framework – which will be the right decision in the public interest.”

Meanwhile, ELSPA has remained non-committal in its view of the appeal. Director general Paul Jackson told MCV: For the same reasons we respected the original decision by the BBFC, ELSPA also respects the decision of the VAC. We await the BBFC’s next steps with interest.”