This is indecent

According to this morning's SCMP, the Hong Kong Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority has received 208 complaints about the Bible as indecent material. This includes this Chinese-language website which does have a warning banner in English.

The Bible became a target of indecency complaints yesterday after an anonymous website launched a campaign asking people to put pressure on the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority to reclassify the holy text as an indecent publication.
The Chinese-language website www.truthbible.net said the Bible was full of stories and references to incest, rape, cannibalism and violence in both the Old and New Testaments.

Tela confirmed yesterday it had received 208 complaints, more than double the number of complaints it received over the past week about the Chinese University Student Press, which resulted in two issues being classified by the Obscene Articles Tribunal as indecent on Monday

snip

Under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, a publication or a display is exempt from the law if it is deemed to be in the interest of science, literature, art and academic study.

If the complaints were upheld, by law it would mean full texts of the Bible would be deemed suitable to be read only by over-18s, and copies would need to carry a warning and be sold in sealed packaging

Comments

Anonymous said…
Was this China or San Francisco?

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
Jen Ambrose said…
Hong Kong, actually. Indecent materials are handled differently in China.
Anonymous said…
What exactly is the relationship between Hong Kong and China?
Jen Ambrose said…
Complicated. In all matters except for foreign affairs and military, Hong Kong is pretty much free to do its own thing. In 40 years (50 years from the handover), it will be just another part of China.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/hk.html
It's why when I have to "leave the country" I can just go to Hong Kong (or Macau, but Hong Kong is a little closer by ferry, much closer by rail).
So when I say that indecent materials are handled differently on the mainland, I mean there isn't some public committee that receives complaints and then sets up hearings. The censors just go ahead and ban it.