An Auckland newspaper says it is adopting guidelines from Indian law in a bid to fend off a flood of ethically questionable advertisements offering supernatural services to the public.
"From astrologers and charmed talisman vendors to jet-setting yogis and gurus, there is an unending stream of the purveyors of esoteric sciences, charms, 'rediscovered' secret knowledge systems and formulas for spiritual uplift," said the Indian Weekender group editor, Dev Nadkarni.
His newspaper will now no longer accept advertisements "that make magical promises and remedies".
Mr Nadkarni said he was using guidelines from India's Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act.
Ethnic media outlets in New Zealand have been targeting Asian readers with huge advertisements for gurus, babas, astrologers, yogis and even tantriks practising black magic with sacrifices.
"In an increasingly competitive spiritual world it becomes imperative for these players to stand out, position themselves differently from one another, hire public relations agencies and spin doctors ... take out advertisements in the media with all kinds of inducements and promises," he said.
"Sure, there are ads for clairvoyants, palm readers and soothsayers even in the mainstream New Zealand media, but it is just that they are far more pronounced in South Asian culture".
At times, the promises made by these people were "plainly ludicrous" and embarrassing, he said.
India's Drugs and Magic Remedies Act provides for two months' jail and a 2000 rupee ($NZ63) fine - critics have said the penalties have never been raised because Indian politicians shelter gurus to give them spiritual credibility, use their followers as vote banks, or to mask sexual or criminal activity.
But it does provide guidelines for a New Zealand publisher seeking to crack down on adverts which Mr Nadkarni described as having an "overpromising nature and tacky quality".
New Zealand's own Tohunga Suppression Act - aimed at people targeting the "superstition or credulity" of Maori, or people professing or pretending to possess supernatural powers in curing disease or prophesy - was repealed in 1962.
Indian High Commissioner Admiral Sureesh Mehta last month called for Indian papers in this country to stop carrying such ads.
Foundation for Advertising Research director Glen Wigg, of Wellington, told NZPA that New Zealand newspapers had a tricky path to tread in weeding out advertising for bogus psychics, because some people believed in things such as astrology to the point where it could be seen as part of their right to practise religion.
People were entitled to religious freedom, but there were rules that constrained claims that a particular faith would bring a material gain, such as winning Lotto.
And there were specific rules against advertisements exploiting the superstitious, or unreasonably playing on the fears of consumers.
There had been a couple of complaints about exploitation of superstition, he said.
"But we don't have any legislation equivalent to the Indian law," he said.
Mr Wigg - an adjunct professor of advertising at Australia's Sunshine Coast University - said the Indian Weekender's rejection of questionable advertisements was an example of self-regulation in the industry.
He said there were a lot of advertisements for clairvoyants and fortune-tellers in mainstream newspapers, but most of the advertisers did not make detailed claims of what a reader would get for their money.
NZPA