In a narrow 6-5 vote victory after a three-hour meeting yesterday, a higher censorship committee allowed the controversial Hollywood film to go ahead - reversing a decision on Tuesday to censor the film.

The police-affiliated panel is a completely different body from the one that approved the 10-minute cut the day before. It said explanations must be displayed on screen in Thai - both before the movie starts and again at the end - to clarify that the movie was fiction.

Terms referring to Jesus and translated into Thai captions as "Jesus the Fraud" that appear in all scenes, will also needed to be re-edited, or left out.

The decision is regarded as final and local Christian groups said after the meeting that they had accepted it. But Thongchai Pradabthanan-urat, an official with the Co-ordination Committee of the Protestant Church of Thailand, said many people were not happy with the decision in the final round, "but with our democratic spirit we accept it. Everything went through according to the legitimate procedure."

Thongchai claimed that the Columbia-TriStar-Buena Vista (Thailand), which produced the PG-13 rated movie and distributed it worldwide, had promised him it would consult with churches if similar incidents occurred.

The 12-member panel began viewing the film and scrutinising the matter at 2pm, after all parties - the Christian groups, the movie producer/distributor and the police Registration Division - had met and earlier discussed the matter for three hours. Details over how people voted were kept confidential.

The panel was headed by Pol Maj General Somwong Lipiphan, who abstained in the vote, and also included people from the Catholic and Protestant faiths. One panel member was the Thai movie director MC Chatrichalerm Yugala. The other members, apart from a lone Columbia-TriStar representative were lecturers on mass communications and journalism.

The movie company said it would also hand out clarification messages with all tickets sold.

Wisit Chuanphiphatphong

The Nation