Senso comum

Centenas de cidadãos de Hong Kong pedem ao conselho regulador dos meios de comunicação que classifique a Bíblia como um livro obsceno. Queixam-se dos capítulos que o livro dedica à violência e ao sexo.

Tudo começou com um artigo que apareceu numa revista estudantil em que se perguntava aos leitores se alguma vez tinham fantasiado com incesto ou zoofilia. As autoridades consideraram que o artigo era indecente e vetaram-no. Alguns grupos cristãos aplaudiram a censura do artigo. Ao invés, grupos de estudantes e professores universitários consideraram a medida um atentado à liberdade de expressão, uma liberdade que existe em Hong Kong — mas não no resto da China — graças aos acordos assinados por Pequim como condição para a devolução da colónia pela Grã-Bretanha.

De modo que os que estavam contra a censura do artigo resolveram dizer que, se o proibiam por ser indecente, com mais motivos deveriam proibir a Bíblia. Para melhor explicarem até que ponto a Bíblia contém capítulos impúdicos, criaram um site e afixaram nele extractos do livro. Ao abrigo das leis sobre a obscenidade, exigem que seja proibida a leitura da Bíblia a menores de 18 anos, que cada Bíblia tenha na capa um aviso advertindo para o seu carácter pornográfico e que seja vendida num invólucro transparente para que não possa ser folheada nas livrarias.

Mas o organismo hongkonguense regulador dos media diz que a proibição não é fácil porque “se trata de um texto religioso que faz parte da civilização”. A Reuters pediu a opinião de um reverendo protestante chinês, que explicou porque é que a Bíblia não deve ser proibida: “O facto de aparecerem nele cenas de violações não quer dizer que o livro promova esse tipo de actividades. Trata-se do senso comum.”

No Briteiros.

Preventative censorship

"An Italian politician has sparked a furore by urging state broadcaster Rai to block the transmission of a controversial BBC documentary.

The programme, aired in the UK in October, investigates the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church.

Italian journalist Michele Santoro has asked to purchase the rights to the film to broadcast it on his talk show.

But Mario Landolfi, who heads Rai's parliamentary oversight committee, has asked Rai to prevent its transmission. (...)"

In BBC News.

"El clima de censura"

Domenico Dolce y Stefano Gabbana han anunciado hoy que van a retirar todos los anuncios publicitarios de la marca Dolce & Gabbana del mercado español para "proteger su creatividad". Los diseñadores han denunciado el "clima de censura" que han sufrido en este país, donde uno de sus anuncios fue tachado de "machista". (...)

In El Pais, dicovered in comunicar a direito.

Bu siteye erişim mahkeme karariyla engellenmiştir

A court in Istanbul has issued an order denying access to the video-sharing website YouTube. The state owned Turk Telecom implemented the ban today after an escalating dispute between Greek and Turkish users of the site.
The court order was issued yesterday and most internet users logging onto the site in Turkey are met with a holding page with a Turkish message, which translates as: “Access to this site has been denied by court order ! ...”.
Greek and Turkish YouTube users have been trading video insults over the past few months, attracting much coverage in the Turkish press. Greek videos reportedly accused the founding president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, of homosexuality; a Turkish user responded by calling Greece the birthplace of homosexuality. (...)

Here is the Times' article.
Discovered in Metroblogging Istanbul.

"Insolent" question?

A Dominican journalist was fired yesterday after Armed Forces minister Ramon Aquino complained about a question that the reporter made to the cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez.
Adolfo Salomón, who has worked in the local television station "Color Vision” for 8 years, told the press that he was dismissed after Aquino sent a letter to that company, complaining about a question from Salomón recently asked to Lopez Rodriguez, asking to comment on the issue of homosexuals in the Dominican catholic Church. The prelate reacted angrily calling the reporter "insolent". (...)

Full article in Dominicane Today.

"Social danger"

Guillermo Espinosa Rodríguez of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental (APLO), an independent news agency, was sentenced by a court in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba on 6 November to two years of house arrest for being a “danger to society.” Espinosa was brought before the court after being held for 12 days at Department 21 of the state security police. (...)

Full article: Reporters without borders.

In the name of the "public interest"

The Municipality of Porto just decided to create new laws for ascribing financial support to institutions: there is a new clause in the contract, which states that the institution can’t be hostile to the municipality in public.
Furthermore, it was also discovered that the same municipality has an agreement with some newspapers (from Vila Nova de Gaia), in which is given to these newspapers the responsibility of following the public acts and the municipality and municipal companies activities as well, with the benefit of sharing between themselves the revenues of the institutional advertising.

Source: Público.

Piglet barred in Turkey

TURKEY'S public television TRT, controlled by the Islamist-rooted government, has barred the popular Walt Disney cartoon Winnie the Pooh from air because it has a piglet as one of its main heroes, the Turkish press reported today.
Several other cartoons featuring pigs also failed to win the green light from TRT management, according to the left-wing Cumhuriyet daily.

© O Insurgente
in News, 17th June

Picture: Cox & Forkum