Good censorship story coming out of Hong Kong. Start here:
An “Obscene Articles Tribunal” recently ruled that a student newspaper at Chinese university (academically one of the highest rated in the World and once a bastion of free speech) broke the law by distributing a sex survey. The Tribunal has yet to issue a penalty, but I am guessing, regardless of its weight (there is possible prison time involved), that the punishment will have as profound a public impact as did the $100 fine given to Scopes who was found also guilty of teaching evolution. The chief editor Tsang Chiu-wai said that regardless of the ruling of the Tribunal the will continue to publish the paper.
The paper’s supporters responded by starting a campaign to censor the bible. Says Reuters:
More than 800 Hong Kong residents have called on authorities to reclassify the Bible as "indecent" due to its sexual and violent content, following an uproar over a sex column in a university student journal.A spokesperson for Hong Kong's Television and Entertainment Licensing authority (TELA) said it had received 838 complaints about the Bible by noon on Wednesday. The complaints follow the launch of an anonymous Web site -- www.truthbible.net -- which said the holy book "made one tremble" given its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest…
…If the Bible is similarly classified as "indecent" by authorities, only those over 18 could buy the holy book and it would need to be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice.
Currently up to 1400 complaints. Petition (in Chinese) here. In a truly christian nation the Bible would be the only source of pornography anyone would be able to get hold of. Yea, those guys knew about marketing.
1400?!! Wow...Thanks for the update....
Best from GZ
OMBW
Posted by: lonniebhodge | May 18, 2007 at 06:18 AM
For people around the world who are interested in this news, you may wish to know that Hong Kong's Obscene Articles Tribunal is capable of making crazy rulings. In 1995, it actually classified a picture showing Michelangelo's statue of David as indecent (which was only overturned on appeal).
The present controversy sparked off when some hypocrite newspapers (themselves publishing erotic contents daily) and conservative moralistic organizations (some related to the fundamentalist church) condemned the university's student publication for the sex contents, intensified by the government tribunal's classification of it as indecent, which will bring criminal consequence to the student editors. This aroused the anger of a sizable public and in particular some activists on the internet who initiated this campaign. Having read the 'offensive' contents of both, I think it is fair to say that some descriptions in the bible are indeed more explicit than those in the student publication.
The number of complaints have now exceeded 2,000 (while the student publication has received less than 200 complaints). However, the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority has formally declined to refer the bible to the tribunal for classification. The outcome may seem sensible but again it provokes criticisms of double standard.
Posted by: passer-by | May 18, 2007 at 07:48 AM