Melon Farmers Original Version

Censor Watch


2017: August

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Trivial complaint...

ASA dismisses whinge about a Banks's Beer advert featuring Jesus as an Easter bunny


Link Here31st August 2017

A tweet from the Bank's [sic] Beer twitter account, dated 12 April 2017, stated Easter is on it's [ASA's sic] way #easter #beer #tellitlikeitis #Wolverhampton. The tweet contained an image which featured a graffiti painting on a wall of Jesus sitting on a bench with a halo above his head. The image showed Jesus wearing a rabbit costume with the head taken off and placed on the bench. Below the bench was a basket filled with Easter eggs. Next to the bench was a pint glass branded with text which stated BANK'S TELL IT LIKE IT IS.

A complainant, who believed the image of Jesus in a rabbit costume trivialised Christianity, challenged whether the ad was offensive.

ASA Assessment: Complaint not upheld

The ASA noted that the tweet was posted during the Easter period and contained an image of Jesus wearing a rabbit costume. We acknowledged that the depiction of Jesus, and particularly the timing of the tweet, could be interpreted as distasteful by some people of a Christian faith. However, we considered that most people would not find the portrayal of Jesus to be mocking or derogatory. Because we considered that the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence, we concluded that it had not breached the Code.

 

 

Thou shalt not make jokes about transgenders...

TV censor criticises CityBeast radio for political incorrectness abut those with protected sexualities


Link Here31st August 2017

The Bigger Drive Home
City Beat Preston, 8 June 2017, 18:35

City Beat Preston is a community radio station broadcasting in Preston, Lancashire.

The Bigger Drive Home is the station’s drive-time programme, broadcast every Monday to Thursday between 15:00 and 19:00.

Ofcom received a complaint about an edition of the programme broadcast on 8 June 2017 which referred to transgender people. Towards the end of the programme the presenter read out a list of people who were celebrating their birthdays on that date and then said:

“And if you’re out and about having a few drinks tonight, don’t forget like I always tell you – if you are single and you meet somebody tonight, make sure you know exactly what they’re gonna be looking like in the morning. I know [another CityBeat presenter], he does it all the time. Goes out, has a few beers, meets a girl and then wakes up in the morning and finds out it’s, er, a transgender. Ah! [laughter] Can I say that? ‘Course I can!”

Around two and a half minutes later, and following an advertising break, the presenter said:

“And by the way, I was only joking about transgenders and [another CityBeat presenter]”.

Ofcom considered Rule 2.3:

“In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context…”.

Ofcom decision: Breach of rule 2.3

Ofcom considered whether the broadcast contained material which could be considered offensive. The presenter sought to make a joke by referring to a colleague’s experience with transgender people. We considered this had the effect of portraying transgender people in a negative and derogatory way and therefore had the potential to be offensive.

We took into account that the presenter went on to say: “And by the way, I was only joking about transgenders and [another CityBeat presenter]”. In Ofcom’s view, this may have provided some limited mitigation to the potential offence. However, we considered that the presenter’s use of the collective noun “transgenders” had further potential to cause offence.

Therefore, for the reasons outlined above, we considered that the content was in breach of Rule 2.3 of the Code.

 

 

Credibility gap...

Indian TV show featuring child marriage is pulled after complaints


Link Here31st August 2017
An Indian TV show which depicted a bizarre love story between a nine-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman has been pulled off air following criticism that it promoted child marriage and was regressive.

In a statement, Sony Entertainment Television said they were cancelling the controversial daily soap Pehredaar Piya Ki (Husband's Guard).

The show which launched in mid-July, had attracted a lot of negative attention right from the beginning for the unusual love story at its centre.

The show's troubles began when Jai Ho Foundation, a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation, petitioned authorities, demanding an immediate ban on it, describing it as indecent and unfit for children. Jai Ho said in a complaint letter to India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani:

A child is seen caressing, stalking and having a relationship of a sexual nature with a lady who is more than double his age... This is an indecent and obscene representation of a child for the purpose of representing sexual relationship.

The programme also prompted a lot of social media outrage in a country where child marriage is still rampant. A petition addressed to Ms Irani on change.org gathered more than 100,000 signatures, prompting the minister to write to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) to take prompt action against the show.

The BCCC ordered the show timings to be changed from the prime time slot of 8:30pm to 10:30pm and the show also began putting out a disclaimer saying we do not support child marriage.

 

 

Update: VPN use to be noted...

Swedish parliament looks to expand mass internet snooping


Link Here31st August 2017
Swedish parliament proposals for an extension to mass internet snooping have been leaked local ISP Bahnhof.

Sweden's government wants to extend the holding period under existing data retention legislation. Today, providers have to retain users' IP address information for six months, but a submission to the inquiry asks that be raised to 10 months.

The use of VPNs is also under fire with a demand that ISPs log the first activation of each new anonymisation service.

There's also talk of demanding providers rework their networks to reduce sharing of IP addresses between users.

Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung writes that it looks like Sweden is imitating China, where the state requires the network to be tailor-made for monitoring, not for the internet to work as well as possible.

Rick Falkvinge of Private Internet Access writes that Sweden is ignoring a 2014 European Court of Justice ruling against data retention , instead doubling down on the forbidden concept of surveillance of people who are not currently any suspicion.

 

 

Tempers flare...

TV censor whinges about Russell Brand's radio banter about a Elvis impersonator having sex in costume


Link Here30th August 2017
Full story: Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross...Winding up Andrew Sachs and Voluptua

Russell Brand
Radio X, 28 May 2017, 11:00

Radio X is a National DAB radio station providing an alternative music service for the 15-34s.

Russell Brand is a weekly programme broadcast between 11:00 and 13:00 on Sundays. The programme on 28 May 2017 was pre-recorded.

Ofcom received a complaint about sexual content during and immediately following a conversation between Russell Brand, Matt Morgan (the programme’s co-host on 28 May 2017) and Mr Gee (the programme’s resident poet) in the studio, and an Elvis Presley tribute artist (‘Guest’), who they had contacted on the phone. The complainant considered the exchanges unsuitable for broadcast when children were listening.

The unscripted conversation included the following:

Brand: “Have you ever had sex as Elvis?”.
...
Guest: “I’ve done it without the jump suit, but I have kept the cape on”.
Brand: “That’s good, that’s how to do it. You can’t have sex with a jump suit on”.
Morgan: “Did you do the voice?”
Guest: “Well the only difficulty with that is they’re studded, you see, and they get very spikey and so they can cut you in places that you wouldn’t imagine”.
Brand: “I’m, I’m imagining them, James!”
Guest: “And if you’re on top of somebody, you know…”.
Brand: “Very, er, you’re a bit of a brutal lover there, James!”
Guest: “Well, yes, I am, especially when I’m covered in Rhinestones!”
Brand: “Phwoar, that’s the way to do it!”
...

Ofcom considered:

  • Rule 1.3: “Children must…be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them”.

  • Rule 1.5 “Radio broadcasters must have particular regard to times when children are particularly likely to be listening”.

Ofcom decision: Breach of rules 1.3 and 1.5

Ofcom first considered whether the material in this case was unsuitable for children.

The presenter asked Mr Burrell, the Elvis Presley tribute artist, whether he had ever had sex as Elvis. He responded by joking that he had kept his cape on, but not his studded jump suit, as “they get very spikey and so they can cut you in places that you wouldn’t imagine”. After a brief studio reaction, the interview ended but was followed up by Mr Gee sharing an anecdote about Elvis Presley, which he had seen in a documentary. He claimed that the singer had left a hotel with a friend after having just met a prostitute, and told him that “she gives tremendous head, tremendous head”.

Ofcom took into account Global’s view that Radio X targeted an ‘alternative’ audience and “maintains a distinction from other mainstream stations”, with “edgier content in [Russell Brand’s] show than on family-orientated pop music stations”. Nevertheless, we did not consider the above was an appropriate topic of discussion for younger listeners and, in our view, it was unsuitable for children.

Ofcom then considered whether the broadcaster had had particular regard to times when children were particularly likely to be listening.

We took into account the Licensee’s acknowledgement, “in hindsight … that some of the further comments that followed the initial conversation – although brief – strayed into more mature themes”. Ofcom considered that Global should have taken this into account when editing the pre-recorded programme.

It is Ofcom’s view that Global had not had particular regard to times when children were likely to be listening, in breach of Rule 1.5.

Breaches of Rules 1.3 and 1.5

 

 

Playing the censor...

ASA bans ad for role playing game, Blade of Queen


Link Here30th August 2017

A paid-for Facebook post for carolgames.com's online game Blade of Queen, seen on 3 May 2017, stated Warning! Please make sure your girlfriend is not by your side when playing-- [ Click to start ]. Beneath that was a 3D computer game image of a woman lying down and facing away from a camera. Text on blue buttons in the bottom left and right corners of the image stated Fondle and Ravage.

A complainant, who believed the ad invited consumers to fantasise about committing sexual assault, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

ReadMob Technologies (Hong Kong) Ltd t/a carolgames.com did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

ASA Assessment: Complaint Upheld

The ASA was concerned by carolgames.com's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future.

We considered the image of the woman, who was faced away from the viewer and seemed to be sleeping, implied fondle and ravage were non-consensual actions and therefore referred to acts of sexual assault. The text above the image which stated Warning! Please make sure your girlfriend is not by your side when playing reinforced the impression that the user's actions were likely to be regarded by others as shameful or immoral.

We considered that referring to sexual assault in that manner in an ad for a video game trivialised and condoned sexual violence, and as such was likely to cause serious and widespread offence. We concluded the ad had not been prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told carolgames.com not to trivialise or condone sexual violence in their advertising, to ensure their ads did not cause serious or widespread offence, and to ensure they prepare ads with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. We referred the matter to the CAP's Compliance Team.

 

 

Update: But does 'fake' now mean opinions not approved by the mainstream media...

Facebook ramps up its censorship to pages that share supposed 'fake news'


Link Here 30th August 2017
Full story: Facebook Censorship...Facebook quick to censor
Facebook has revealed new plans to censor supposed 'fake news'. It has announced that any pages which are flagged for hosting stories that are considered unpolitically correct will be banned from buying advertising to publicise themselves.

A group of third party fact checkers will be tasked with highlighting these pages.

In a statement, Satwik Shukla and Tessa Lyons, who are both product managers, wrote:

Currently, we do not allow advertisers to run ads that link to stories that have been marked false by third-party fact-checking organizations. Now we are taking an additional step.

If Pages repeatedly share stories marked as false, these repeat offenders will no longer be allowed to advertise on Facebook.

This update will help to reduce the distribution of false news which will keep Pages that spread false news from making money.

 

 

Gagged by anti-lobbying rules...

Letter signed by 122 organisations including Save the Children and Greenpeace warns their voices are being silenced due to draconian legislation


Link Here30th August 2017
An open letter signed by 122 organisations including Save the Children, Greenpeace and Christian Aid says campaigning is being lost from public debate due to the draconian requirements of the Lobbying Act.  The letter reases

To Ms Tracey Crouch MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society, Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Dear Minister,

Enhancing civil society participation in the democratic process

Congratulations upon your appointment as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society. We are writing to you, as organisations for whom campaigning is fundamental to achieving our mission, to express our concerns regarding the Transparency of Lobbying, Non - Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014, also known as the Lobbying Act, and its impact on the ability of civil society to participate in the democratic process.

Civil society is a vital part of a healthy democracy. It has a long and proud tradition of campaigning in the UK, and has been the driving force behind many of our great social reforms, from the abolition of slavery to the extension of the franchise to women. In more recent times, charities and non - partisan campaign groups have worked with parliamentarians from across the political spectrum to achieve equal marriage and tackle modern slavery.

While we recognise that regulation is necessary to ensure that no one individual or organisation c an exert undue influence at an election, the Lobbying Act has had a disproportionate impact on civil society campaigning. We are concerned that it caused many organisations not to engage in the run up to the recent general election, and resulted in some important voices being lost from public debate.

Charities and non - partisan campaign groups have spent significant time attempting to understand the legislation and how to comply. However, many of the rules are vague and confusing, especially for smaller organisations. While some organisations have sought legal advice to help them interpret the legislation, this can be expensive and is simply not an option for many. The rules on joint campaigning are also a concern for smaller charities, and have made organisations more hesitant to collaborate.

A Government-commissioned review of the Part II of the Lobbying Act, conducted by the Conservative peer, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, found that it fails to get the balance right and proposed several changes to the legislation. The House of Lords Select Committee on Charities described his recommendations as “eminently sensible” and called on the Government to implement them “in full”.

We are writing to you as the Minister responsible for civil society, to ask you to work with your colleagues in the Cabinet Office to ensure sufficient parliamentary time is devoted to allow revisions to be made, which would protect and enhance the ability of civil society to engage in the democratic process.

The Lobbying Act is a confusing and burdensome piece of legislation that weakens our democracy, rather than strengthens it. We look forward to working with you in your new role to ensure that much-needed changes are made to this law.

 

 

Fox News censored in the UK...

Presumably a victim of News International having to kowtow to the authorities to get a merger approval


Link Here30th August 2017
Rupert Murdoch has taken the rightwing US channel Fox News off the air in the UK after 15 years.

The decision came as Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, is set to return her verdict on whether to ask the competition regulator to launch an investigation into the Murdochs' adherence to broadcasting standards in the UK as part of an inquiry into Fox's £11.7bn takeover bid for Sky.

[Fox] has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK, a spokeswoman for the company said. Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK. We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK.

The spokesperson said that Fox News only reached about 2,000 average daily viewers in the UK, however figures from the Broadcaster's Audience Research Board (Barb) suggest that the number was closer to 60,000.

Fox News has become increasingly troublesome for the Murdochs as they attempt to buy Sky. The channel is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal that led to a string of high-profile figures leaving, including the chairman Roger Ailes , who has since died, and leading presenter Bill O'Reilly .

 

 

Offsite Article: The regressive left is now in control of the media...


Link Here30th August 2017
The far right is losing its ability to speak freely online. Should the left defend it? By Julia Carrie Wong

See article from theguardian.com

 

 

Offsite Article: BBFC Podcast Episode 72...


Link Here30th August 2017
To Kill a Mocking Bird, Wild Bill

See article from bbfc.co.uk

 

 

Update: Protesting against laws to block website unblocking...

Russian protest in Moscow against repressive new internet controls


Link Here29th August 2017
Full story: Internet Censorship in Russia...Russia and its repressive state control of media
About 1,000 Russians demonstrated in Moscow on 26th August against repressive government controls on Internet use. They shouted slogans such as Russia will be free and Russia without censorship ,.

In July, Russia's parliament voted to outlaw web tools that let Internet users sidestep official bans of certain websites.  It allows telecommunications censor Roskomnadzor to compile a list of so-called anonymiser services and prohibit any that fail to respect the bans, while also requiring users of online messaging services to identify themselves with a telephone number.

 

 

Offsite Article: The mother of all restorations...


Link Here29th August 2017
Suspiria Has Been Restored in 4K...and It's Perfect!

See article from bloody-disgusting.com

 

 

Offsite Article: How Blockchain Is Reinventing Your News Feed...


Link Here29th August 2017
Internet ideas to wrest control of news feeds from the likes of Google and Facebook

See article from forbes.com

 

 

Obituary Tobe Hooper...

Departs to the great Funhouse on the sky


Link Here28th August 2017

Tobe Hooper has died aged 74. He was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work in the horror film genre; his most recognized films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist . Stuart Heritage of The Guardian described The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as one of the most influential films ever made

Filmography
  • Eggshells (1969)
  • The Song Is Love (1969)
  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
  • Eaten Alive (1977)
  • The Funhouse (1981)
  • Poltergeist (1982)
  • Lifeforce (1985)
  • Invaders from Mars (1986)
  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
  • Spontaneous Combustion (1990)
  • Night Terrors (1993)
  • Body Bags (1993)
  • The Mangler (1995)
  • The Apartment Complex (1999)
  • Crocodile (2000)
  • Toolbox Murders (2004)
  • Mortuary (2006)
  • Djinn (2013)

 

 

Commented: Heavy handed...

The authorities seems to have been spooked by the Charlottesville troubles and have decided to ratchet up penalties for internet insults on social media


Link Here26th August 2017
The Director of public prosecutions has announced plans for more prosecutions and harsher punishments for online insult. Prosecutors will be ordered to treat online hate crime as seriously as offences carried out face to face.

Alison Saunders said the Crown Prosecution Service will seek stiffer penalties for abuse on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. Saunders says the crackdown is needed because online abuse can lead to the sort of extremist hate seen in Charlottesville in the United States last weekend, which left one person dead.

Writing in the Guardian, Saunders said:

Left unchallenged, even low-level offending can subsequently fuel the kind of dangerous hostility that has been plastered across our media in recent days. That is why countering it is a priority for the CPS.

The new policy documents cover different strands of hate crime: racist and religious; disability; and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic. They also say that victims of biphobic hate crime, aimed at bisexual people, have different needs and experiences compared to those suffering anti-gay and transphobic offences.

Offsite Comment: Censored whilst claiming to be uncensored

23rd August 2017 See  article from thesun.co.uk

Free speech lawyer Myles Jackman, of the Open Rights Group, said:

It's incredibly clumsy guidance and a strict interpretation is chilling.

Robust discourse in a civilised society is essential and means people sometimes disagreeing in very strong terms.

Social media is a minefield and people can be wholly unpleasant in a friendly way.

Offsite Video: A clamp down on free speech

23rd August 2017 See  video from youtube.com

Hate Crime' Crackdown by TheBritisher

Offsite Comment: We don't need the state to police hate

26th August 2017 See  article from spiked-online.com by Naomi Firshtstaff

Let's trust citizens, not officials, to challenge prejudice online.

 

 

Would you credit it?...

Reprehensible Nigerian bank bans its customers from using its payment cards to buy porn


Link Here26th August 2017
United Bank for Africa (UBA) is a leading commercial bank in Negeria.

It has just announced that its customers can no longer buy jewellery, bet or have access to pornography sites with the bank's payment cards.

In a statement the bank said its debit and prepaid cards are now restricted from performing such transactions. UBA said,:

We wish to inform all cardholders that we have placed restrictions on the Bank's debit and prepaid cards from carrying out transactions with merchants that are transacting on the following business categories, Jewellry, Pornography,Dating and Escort Services, Betting (including lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting and wagers).

 

 

Developing control freakery...

Reprehensible photo developers refuse to develop photos from Free the Nipple political event


Link Here26th August 2017
More than 200 people took to the streets of Brighton to highlight oppressive double standards which dictate that men may show their chests in public whilst women may not.

But when one participant took the photos to be developed at Boots in Tunbridge Wells, she says she was left feeling embarrassed after staff told her that she could not have nude photos developed in store. The protester was told that 12 of her photos from the event couldn't be printed - despite them being taken at a public march which was attended by parents and children.

A spokesperson for Boots noted that there is no company-wide policy on nudity, and that the shop assistant would not have been breaking any company rules to personally take the decision to ban nudity.

Despite the missing prints, the retailer charged her full price for developing the images and the woman in question has since issued a formal complaint to Boots.

 

 

Update: Excessive censorship...

New Indian film censor quickly bans his first film, Toofan Singh


Link Here24th August 2017
Full story: Banned Movies in India...Sex, religion and easy offence

Toofan Singh is a 2017 India action film by Baghal Singh and Gurcharan Virk.
Starring Ranjit Bawa, Avtar Gill and Raza Murad. BBFC link IMDb

The journey of a Punjabi Sikh boy who grew up during the chaotic, violent 1980s revolving around his chase for survival, equality and justice in order to protect and shield society and fight against brutality, crime and corruption.

India's new chief film censor hasn't got off to a very good start as he has already banned his first film.

Even as Prasoon Joshi stepped into the chairman's role at the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), reports have emerged of the new regime's first edict: banning the Punjabi film, Toofan Singh , on grounds of supposed excessive violence.

Poster of Punjabi film Toofan Singh.

Toofan Singh, directed by Baghal Singh and starring Ranjit Bawa in the title role, tells the story of a man who adopts terrorist-like tactics in order to fight corruption in Indian politics and bureaucracy.

A source from the CBFC reportedly said:

The film is brutal and anarchic. We couldn't empathise with its message of brute power, let alone grant it a censor certificate

In the UK, the film was passed 18 uncut for strong bloody violence, scenes of torture

 

 

Updated: Dreaming of a right to protest in the USA...

US government is bullying an internet company to obtain personal details of those involved in a protest against Donald Trump.


Link Here24th August 2017
The US internet company DreamHost is fighting government demands for it to hand over details of millions of activists.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) wants all visitors' IP addresses - some 1.3 million - to a website that helped organise a protest on the day of President Trump's inauguration. In addition to the IP addresses, DreamHost said that the DoJ requested the contact information, email content and photos of thousands of visitors.

DreamHost is currently refusing to comply with the request and is due in court on 18th August,

In a blog post on the issue, DreamHost said that, like many other online service providers, it was regularly approached by law enforcement about customers who may be the subject of criminal investigations. But, it added, it took issue with this particular search warrant for being a highly untargeted demand.

Civil liberties group The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is helping DreamHost fight its case, said: No plausible explanation exists for a search warrant of this breadth, other than to cast a digital dragnet as broadly as possible.

Update: Government data demand narrowed down a little

24th August 2017 See  article from theregister.co.uk

The US Department of Justice has eased up in its legal fight against hosting company DreamHost, saying it no longer wants all IP logs associated with a Trump protest site.

That is not the end of the matter, however. The DoJ still wants records related to what it suspects was the planned coordination of illegal acts. It has slightly limited the request to a six-month window ending on the day of the protest itself, to subscribers of the site as opposed to simple visitors, and it has said it does not want draft blog posts or images.

 

 

Streams of whinges...

ASA dismisses complaints about Spotify adverts


Link Here23rd August 2017

Two TV ads and a cinema ad for online music service Spotify were seen between 28 April and 13 May 2017.

  • a. One TV ad showed a family at a dinner table. While the son was singing along to a song, the mother said (to camera) What he doesn't know is that he was made to this song. In this room. On this table.

  • b. The second TV ad showed a teenage girl outside a closed bedroom door. Music could be heard from within. The girl said Yep. Bieber's 'Love Yourself'. I think we all know what's going on in there.

  • c. The cinema ad was identical to ad (a).

The ASA received 81 complaints, raising one or more of the following issues:

  1. 164 complainants, most of whom saw the ad during Britain's Got Talent and Take Me Out on Saturday 29 April 2017, challenged whether ad (a) was offensive and unsuitable to be broadcast during programmes watched by children, because of the sexual reference it contained.

  2. 18 complainants, who saw the ad during Britain's Got Talent on Saturday 6 May 2017, challenged whether ad (b) was offensive and unsuitable to be broadcast during a programme watched by children, because they believed it implied the person in the bedroom was masturbating.

  3. Two complainants, who saw ad (c) in the cinema before the film Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 April 2017, challenged whether the ad was offensive and unsuitable to be shown before a film whose audience was likely to include children.

The Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) said they considered the suggestive humour of the ad required only a minor restriction as its full meaning would not be understood by younger viewers who were not already aware of what it referred to. They considered it was appropriate to keep sexually risque humour away from very young children but noted that the minors in the audience of a 12A film were likely to be older and have some knowledge of the facts of life. They accepted that that could give rise to a minor degree of embarrassment between some parents and their children, but that that did not signify that the ad had caused serious or widespread offence.

ASA Assessment: Complaints not upheld

1. and 2. Not upheld

The ASA acknowledged that both ads contained implied sexual references. We considered, however, that the references were not explicit and were unlikely to be understood by young children. We noted that Clearcast had given the ads a scheduling restriction to prevent them being broadcast in or adjacent to programmes commissioned for, principally directed at or likely to appeal to children. The audience data bore out that, while the programmes had general appeal, they did not have particular appeal to children. We therefore concluded that the ads were not offensive or unsuitable to be broadcast in breaks in those programmes at those times.

3. Not upheld

We acknowledged that the ad contained an implied sexual reference. We considered, however, that the reference was not explicit and was unlikely to be understood by young children. We acknowledged that the film would have children in the audience, but we noted that those children were likely to be older or accompanied. Given the mild nature of the sexual reference, we therefore concluded that the ad was not offensive or unsuitable to be shown in that context.

 

 

Update: Possessed by censors...

Annabelle 2 is banned in Lebanon over claims that it is offensive to the christian faith


Link Here23rd August 2017
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel
Annabelle 2 is a 2017 USA horror mystery thriller by David F Sandberg.
Starring Miranda Otto, Philippa Coulthard and Stephanie Sigman. IMDb

Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker's possessed creation, Annabelle.

The new horror film Annabelle 2: Creation was scheduled to debut in Lebanon this past weekend but authorities decided to pull the film from theaters because clergy found it offensive to the Christian faith.

According to Lebanese daily Annahar, movie theaters throughout the country were asked to hold off on running the film for further deliberation because Christian leaders took issue with some of its scenes. Cinemacity, however, confirmer that the film was definitely blocked and will in fact not be screened in the country at all.

The movie was reportedly screened for the General Security's Censorship Bureau earlier in the month and then was passed on to the censorship committee. Annahar reported that Catholic Priests Fr. Abdu Abu Kasm and Fr. Athanasius Shahwan were both present at the censorship committee's screening. Father Shahwan had the final word and he demanded that the film be blocked over scenes that are considered offensive to Christian faith.

The specific scenes in question were not mentioned but many believe the objection comes from the fact that nuns are the ones being victimized in the movie's plot.

 

 

The Catholic League recommends...

AMC's Preacher and the episode Dirty Little Secret


Link Here23rd August 2017
The latest episode of AMC's Preacher has upset the Catholic League thanks to a scene depicting Jesus Christ having sex on the night of The Last Supper.

The AMC drama is based on a comic book about a modern-day Preacher who is losing his faith and encountering many different demonic entities and monsters. In the second episode of Season 2, which aired Monday, the main character goes on a hunt to find a descendant of Christ.

The first seven minutes of the episode, titled Dirty Little Secret , depicts Jesus and a woman having sex, speaking graphically about various acts and showing the two's various positions in silhouette. Later, he tells her to keep it a secret before saying that he's got to go off to do something for his father. It later becomes clear that this is the night that Jesus would be eventually crucified.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue said in a statement:

Depicting Jesus in a grotesque sex scene is an assault on the sensibilities of all Christians, as well as people of good will who are not Christians.  We have been treated to this kind of fare from some pay-per-view channels, but we are not accustomed to AMC getting into the mud. If this is a signal of what it aspires to become, we will rally Christians against it.

 

 

Property of the State...

BBFC category cuts required for a 15 rated cinema release


Link Here21st August 2017
Property of the State is a 2016 UK biography by Kit Ryan.
Starring Elaine Cassidy, Aisling Loftus and Patrick Gibson. BBFC link IMDb

UK: Passed 15 for strong language, violence, sexual violence, threat, suicide references after 34s of BBFC category cuts for:

  • 2017 cinema release
The BBFC commented:
  • Distributor chose to remove bloody detail from a suicide scene in order to achieve a 15. An 18 uncut was available.
Summary Notes

Based on the true story that gripped Ireland in the 1990's, Property of The State tells of a disturbed young man by the name of Brendan O'Donnell. Seen through the eyes of his sister Ann Marie, piece by piece she threads together the events that ultimately lead to the harrowing murders of a young mother, her child and a local priest in the forest of East Clare, Ireland. Ann Marie lived through it all. As the loving sister of a loving brother, she became the sister of a murderer and the sister of a man described as the most evil man in Ireland. She had not committed a crime, yet many saw her guilty by association.

 

 

Not all bad...

Trump's government overturns Obama's repressive attempt to censor adult companies by denying them banking services


Link Here20th August 2017

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicated it will end Operation Choke Point, the repressive program that discouraged banks from offering financial services to a range of companies it deemed objectionable.

Critics of the program that was initiated during the Obama administration said it was hurting legitimate businesses such. Adult entertainment companies were also affected.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd referred to the program as a misguided initiative in a August 16 letter to House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte. In the DOJ's letter obtained by Politico, Boyd said, We share your view that law abiding businesses should not be targeted simply for operating in an industry that a particular administration might disfavor.

 

 

Maniac...

The BBFC waives its cuts to 1963 Hammer thriller


Link Here20th August 2017
Maniac is a 1963 UK crime horror romance by Michael Carreras.
Starring Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray and Donald Houston. BBFC link IMDb

UK: Passed 12 uncut for moderate violence, threat, references to sexual violence with previous BBFC cuts waived for:

  • 2017 Powerhouse Films UK video

UK Censorship History

Cut by the BBFC for an X rated 1963 cinema release. The BBFC cuts were waived for 12 rated home video in 2017.
Summary Notes

Kerwin Matthews, playing a dissolute drifter down on his luck, Jeff Farrell, is stranded in a cheap bar in France where he falls for Annette, the proprietor's pretty stepdaughter, played by Liliane Brousse. Annette's stepmother Eve, played by Nadia Gray, gradually shifts the young man's attentions to herself, rather than her stepdaughter, and together Eve and Jeff concoct a plot to help free Eve's estranged husband from the institution in which he's been confined as a homicidal maniac these past four years after committing the so-called "Acetylene Murder", when he killed with a blowtorch the man who raped Annette. The idea is that Georges, the husband, will leave the country, but, unknown to Jeff, it's not Georges who escapes but Henri, the guard who has become Eve's lover . . .

 

 

A darker shade of censorship...

Russian translators censor a gay subplot from novel without the author's permission citing Russian censorship laws about 'gay propaganda'


Link Here20th August 2017
A number of authors have spoken out following the decision of a Russian publishing house to censor a gay storyline in a fantasy novel. The Russian publisher has admitted censoring a gay storyline in a popular fantasy novel series without permission from the US-based author.

Victoria Schwab is the author of the Shades of Magic series, which features a number of LGBT characters, including a bisexual prince who has a same-sex romance.

The bestselling books were translated into Russian as part of a deal with Russia-based publisher Rosmen and earlier this week Schwab said she was shocked to find out that a queer plot twist had been removed from the copy.

Schwab, who accused the publishing house of breaking contract, has now said she is seeking to terminate the deal. It would have been better not to publish the book at al

Publisher Rosmen has issued a statement admitting that it removed parts of the storyline from the novel. It said:

We only did this so that we wouldn't violate the ban on gay propaganda for minors. But we kept the romantic plotline as a whole.

 

 

Offsite Article: spiPlayer...


Link Here20th August 2017
BBC speaks of future iPlayer options that will use a microphone to spy on viewers, in the name of suggesting programming 'appropriate' to the people in the room

See article from telegraph.co.uk

 

 

Extract: Britain's Got a Talent for Whingeing...

UK's top 10 TV programmes as judged by the number of complaints to Ofcom


Link Here19th August 2017
TV censor Ofcom has provided Trusted Reviews with figures that reveal which television items have received the most viewer complaints over the past year:

10. Benidorm (ITV) -- 137 complaints

9. Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls (Channel 4) -- 153 complaints

8. Good Morning Britain (ITV) -- 181 complaints

7. Sky News (Sky News) -- 190 complaints

6. Emmerdale (ITV) -- 275 complaints

5. Coronation Street (ITV) -- 303 complaints

4. Comic Relief (BBC 1) -- 340 complaints

3. Emmerdale (ITV) -- 448 complaints

2. Coronation Street (ITV) -- 473 complaints

1. Britain's Got Talent (ITV) -- 663 complaints

... Read the full article from trustedreviews.com

 

 

Update: Russia's relationship czar...

Government film censors clear the movie Matilda for release disappointing the religious leaders calling for a ban


Link Here19th August 2017
Full story: Blasphemy in Russia...Offending religious beliefs or desecration of holy objects or symbols
Matilda is a 2017 Russia historical biography by Aleksey Uchitel.
Starring Michalina Olszanska, Lars Eidinger and Luise Wolfram. IMDb

In the twilight of Imperial Russia, prima ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya becomes the mistress of three Grand Dukes.

A historical film about the last Russian czar's affair with a ballerina has been cleared for release by film censors at the Russian Culture Ministry. Vyasheslav Telnov, the head of the ministry's film department, said it checked Matilda and found it in full compliance with legal norms.

Matilda, which describes Nicholas II's relationship with Matilda Kshesinskaya has drawn virulent criticism from some Orthodox christians and hard-line nationalists, who see it as blasphemy against the emperor, glorified as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Russian lawmaker Natalya Poklonskaya spearheaded the campaign for banning the film. She even asked the Prosecutor General's office to carry out an inquiry into Matilda, which is set to be released on the centennial of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

Matilda opponents have gathered signatures against the film, and earlier this month several hundred people gathered to pray outside a Moscow church for the movie to be banned. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed regional leader of Chechnya has supported the calls for a ban, as have authorities in the neighboring province of Dagestan.

 

 

Update: Dangerous Thailand...

The Vogue for Thailand making commonplace social media postings into a criminal offence


Link Here19th August 2017
Full story: Internet Censorship in Thailand...Thailand implements mass website blocking
Vogue fashion magazine has been reporting on the dangers of social media posts that contain images which included alcohol brands. Vogue magazine writes:

Tourists might not realize as they make their guidebook-mandated pilgrimage to nightlife hotspots like Khao San Road, is that despite the country's many Full Moon parties and bar girls, alcohol advertising is illegal. And posting a photo on social media of your beer by the beach could count as advertising.

Recently police have begun to strictly enforce 2008's Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which bans displaying the names or logos of products in order to induce people to drink such alcoholic beverages, either directly or indirectly.

Last month, police announced their intention to more closely patrol social media and charge those found breaking the law. That means even if your favorite actress wasn't being paid for her endorsement and really was just sharing a photo with a drink by the pool or on a night out, she could find herself facing a 50,000 baht (about $1,500 USD) fine for indirectly inducing drinking.

Earlier this month, eight local celebrities were fined for posting selfies with alcoholic drinks on social media, with Thai Asia Pacific Brewery and Boon Rawd Brewery Co. (the producer of Singha beer) also implicated in the case. But police aren't just monitoring the accounts of the rich and famous -- at the beginning of August, three bar girls found themselves arrested after making a Facebook Live video inviting people to come enjoy a beer promotion.

 

 

Offsite Article: BBFC Podcast 71 Dr Who...


Link Here19th August 2017
Why some episodes are rated PG whilst others are rated 12

See article from bbfc.co.uk

 

 

Offsite Article: Censorship Ratchet...


Link Here19th August 2017
Full story: Internet Censorship in China...All pervading Chinese internet censorship
China launches criminal investigation of major internet companies suspecting that they are not censoring social media users enough

See article from sputniknews.com

 

 

Update: Strong Words...

Ofcom fine Kanshi Radio over Sikh song with lyrics derogatory to other religions


Link Here18th August 2017
Full story: Ofcom on Religion...ofcom keep religious extremism in check
Pinky Pinky
Kanshi Radio Limited, 30 June 2016, 01:59 and 1 September 2016, 00:05

Kanshi Radio is a satellite radio station providing speech and music programmes for the Asian community in the UK.

This sanction was in relation to the broadcast of a song, Pinky Pinky, which was in Punjabi and lasted approximately 11 minutes. The song contained highly offensive language and aggressively pejorative references to the Muslim community, and Muslim women in particular. It also contained well known sacred Islamic phrases, interspersed with offensive terms, gunshots and sexualised noises.

Ofcom found that the programme breached Rules:

  • Rule 2.1: “Generally accepted standards must be applied to the content of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/ or offensive material.”
  • Rule 2.3: “In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context (…). Such material may include, but is not limited to offensive language, violence, sex, sexual violence, humiliation, distress, violation of human dignity, discriminatory treatment or language (for example on the grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religion, beliefs and sexual orientation). Appropriate information should also be broadcast where it would assist in avoiding or minimising offence.”
  • Rule 3.2: Material which contains hate speech must not be included in television and radio programmes except where it is justified by the context.
  • Rule 3.3: Material which contains abusive or derogatory treatment of individuals, groups, religions or communities, must not be included in television and radio services except where it is justified by the context.

Ofcom published its decision on these breaches on 5 December 2016 in issue 318 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin. Ofcom gave examples from the sonly lyrics eg:

Your sister's cunt, Oi, your sister's cunt, let me fuck your mother's cunt. Let me fuck your sister, come over here and let me give you some Sikh cock. Allahu Akbar motherfucker.

In Ofcom's view the breaches were serious and we therefore considered the imposition of a statutory sanction in this case.

In accordance with Ofcom's penalty guidelines, Ofcom decided that it was appropriate and proportionate in the circumstances to impose a financial penalty of £17,500 on the Licensee

 

 

Offsite Article: Thou shalt not criticise...


Link Here18th August 2017
Victory for street preacher arrested for criticising Islam

See article from christianconcern.com

 

 

Euston, we have a problem...

ASA bans trailers for Alien Covenant as shown at railway stations


Link Here17th August 2017

Two digital outdoor ads displayed on large screens in two stations in central London, for the film Alien: Covenant, seen in early May 2017:

a. The first ad began with a spacecraft approaching a planet followed by scenes on the planet. In one scene a man in a dark room shined a torch on an alien egg, the top of which began to slowly open. A close-up showed an alien-like mouth suddenly exploding from it, towards the camera. A woman in distress was then shown running down a corridor, being chase by an arachnid-like alien, followed by a close-up of her screaming. An arachnid-like alien was then shown running towards the camera. The final shot showed a woman hiding from an alien which was just on the other side of a door frame.

b. The second ad featured large on-screen text which stated in turn: RUN, HIDE, SCREAM and PRAY. The text appeared next to brief clips from the film, including the scene with the woman in distress running down a corridor being chased by an alien, the alien egg slowly opening, the close-up of the woman screaming, a woman looking panicked and shouting through the glass window in a closed door, the close-up of the alien-like mouth suddenly exploding towards the camera, and the final shot of a woman hiding from an alien which was just on the other side of a door frame.

Three complainants, one of whose children had seen the ads, challenged whether the ads were likely to cause fear or distress, and whether they were suitable to be shown in an untargeted medium.

ASA Assessment: Complaints upheld

The ASA understood the film was rated as a 15 by the BBFC and considered that the advertiser should therefore have taken particular care to ensure that scenes included in the ads would be suitable to be shown in a public space where children were likely to be present.

The ads contained scenes of characters who were clearly in distress, as well as images of an alien mouth suddenly exploding from an egg out towards the viewer, and a woman being chased by an alien. We considered those scenes were likely to frighten and cause distress to some children and that the ads were likely to catch their attention, particularly as they were shown on large screens. We concluded the ads were not suitable to be shown in an untargeted public medium and therefore breached the Code.

The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Twentieth Century Fox Film Company Ltd to target their ads more carefully in future to avoid the risk of causing undue fear and distress to children.

 

 

A forgotten childhood...

Government to incorporate upcoming EU privacy protection directive into UK law


Link Here17th August 2017

People are  to have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age under new measures announced by Digital Censorship Minister Matt Hancock.

  • Public to have greater control over personal data - including right to be forgotten

  • New right to require social media platforms to delete information on children and adults when asked

In a statement of intent the Government has committed to updating and strengthening data protection laws through a new Data Protection Bill. It will provide everyone with the confidence that their data will be managed securely and safely. Research shows that more than 80% of people feel that they do not have complete control over their data online.

Under the plans individuals will have more control over their data by having the right to be forgotten and ask for their personal data to be erased. This will also mean that people can ask social media channels to delete information they posted in their childhood. The reliance on default opt-out or pre-selected 'tick boxes', which are largely ignored, to give consent for organisations to collect personal data will also become a thing of the past.

Businesses will be supported to ensure they are able to manage and secure data properly. The data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), will also be given more power to defend consumer interests and issue higher fines, of up to £17 million or 4% of global turnover, in cases of the most serious data breaches.

Matt Hancock, Minister of State for Digital said:

Our measures are designed to support businesses in their use of data, and give consumers the confidence that their data is protected and those who misuse it will be held to account.

The new Data Protection Bill will give us one of the most robust, yet dynamic, set of data laws in the world. The Bill will give people more control over their data, require more consent for its use, and prepare Britain for Brexit. We have some of the best data science in the world and this new law will help it to thrive.

The Data Protection Bill will:

  • Make it simpler to withdraw consent for the use of personal data

  • Allow people to ask for their personal data held by companies to be erased

  • Enable parents and guardians to give consent for their child's data to be used

  • Require 'explicit' consent to be necessary for processing sensitive personal data

  • Expand the definition of 'personal data' to include IP addresses, internet cookies and DNA

  • Update and strengthen data protection law to reflect the changing nature and scope of the digital economy

  • Make it easier and free for individuals to require an organisation to disclose the personal data it holds on them

  • Make it easier for customers to move data between service providers

New criminal offences will be created to deter organisations from either intentionally or recklessly creating situations where someone could be identified from anonymised data.

Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner, said:

We are pleased the government recognises the importance of data protection, its central role in increasing trust and confidence in the digital economy and the benefits the enhanced protections will bring to the public.

Data protection rules will also be made clearer for those who handle data but they will be made more accountable for the data they process with the priority on personal privacy rights. Those organisations carrying out high-risk data processing will be obliged to carry out impact assessments to understand the risks involved.

The Bill will bring the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) into UK law, helping Britain prepare for a successful Brexit.

 

 

Update: No refuge from censorship...

Malaysian film censors target films at refugee festival


Link Here17th August 2017
Full story: Censored Films in Malaysia...Film censors and censorship
Several films about refugees have been censored for showing at a festival in Malaysia.

Activists say the Film Censorship Board (LPF) officials came to the Refugee Festival in Kuala Lumpur late last week, subsequently demanding the partial censorship of Bou , a film about trafficked brides from Burma (Myanmar), and total ban on Kakuma Can Dance about refugee hip hop dancers in Kenya.

Refugee Festival organiser Mahi Ramakrishnan, who directed Bou (bride in the Rohingya language) said Malaysian authorities turned up immediately prior to the opening of the event to force the filmmakers to gain prior clearance from the LPF before screening their work.

Ramakrishnan later showed a cut version of Bou on Aug 13, in which the LPF demanded certain, politically sensitive scenes were muted, played without subtitles or simply removed, including one showing footage of Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak. According to campaign group Fortify Rights, another such scene is where a human trafficker explains false passports for Rohingya child brides are made in Bangladesh before the trafficker will pay money to clear [Malaysian] immigration.

 

 

Update: Misleading intentions...

Vietnam's government announces an internet censorship systems to identify and block news that it does not like


Link Here17th August 2017
Full story: Internet Censorship in Vietnam...New law requiring websites to delete content
An internet censorship system including software that identifies, blocks, collects and processes 'misleading' information on the Internet will soon be launched in Vietnam.

Software that blocks PCs from accessing websites containing 'misleading' information, and an investigation system that analyzes methods used by cyber criminals will also be developed.

The project was recently approved by the Ministry of Information and Communications and will run until 2025.

 

 

Offsite Article: Is Your Laptop Watching You Masturbate?...


Link Here17th August 2017
Naah... It's just an attempted scam

See article from lifehacker.com.au

 

 

Skirting around extremism...

Another disgraceful PC ban by ASA who claim that anything slightly sexy somehow causes widespread offence


Link Here16th August 2017

A product listing on www.ratandboa.com, for The Christy Skirt, seen on 2 March 2017, which featured an image of a woman from the neck down wearing a top that partially exposed her breasts and revealed a nipple piercing.

A complainant challenged whether the image was offensive, because it was highly sexualised and objectified women.

Rat and Boa Ltd stated that while the image may have been distasteful to the individual complainant, the Code stated that this was not enough in itself to find a breach. They said that there was nothing in the ad to suggest anything that would otherwise breach any other parts of the Code.

They explained that the woman in the photo was the co-founder of Rat and Boa and she had undertaken the shoot with her own free will and expression of artistic license. They stated that it was unreasonable to suggest that she would objectify women or herself.

ASA Assessment: Complaint upheld

The ASA noted that the image was cut-off at the model's shoulders and her breasts were partially exposed, revealing a nipple piercing. One hand was placed on the waist band of the skirt, pulling it down to show her lower abdomen. We considered that the image was gratuitous and sexually provocative, because the model's pose emphasised her breasts and torso, rather than the product itself.

We concluded that, by using a sexualised image of a woman, the ad objectified women and was likely to cause serious and widespread offence.

The ad must not appear in its current form. We told Rat and Boa Ltd to ensure that their future ads did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

 

 

The Sun takes heat...

Muslim campaigner finds that IPSO will not take complaints about a Sun column that criticised islam


Link Here16th August 2017

A muslim campaigner has said he is powerless to complain about a Sun column criticising Muslims because the Editors' Code gives no protection to minority groups on grounds of religion.

In a column on immigration, Sun comment writer Trevor Kavanagh said:

There is one unspoken fear, gagged by political correctness, which links Britain and the rest of Europe. The common denominator, almost unsayable until last week's furore over Pakistani sex gangs, is Islam.  Thanks to former equalities chief Trevor Phillips, and Labour MPs such as Rotherham's Sarah Champion, it is acceptable to say Muslims are a specific rather than a cultural problem.

He concluded his column by saying:

What will we do about The Muslim Problem then?

Miqdaad Versi has made numerous complaints to press regulator IPSO and secured 30 national press corrections over reporting of Islam and Muslims. He said:

In a week where we have seen the serious challenges of neo-Nazi plots against Muslims, we have a national newspaper asking its readers to consider what solution there should be for 'The Muslim Problem'. What would be the reaction if this was about any other minority faith or racial group?

It is seriously disappointing that the press regulator IPSO is not willing to afford protection for groups against incitement to hatred or violence.

While the code protects individuals from discrimination it does not do the same for religious and ethnic groups. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, Tell MAMA and Faith Matters have nonetheless submitted a joint complaint to press regulator IPSO. In a statement they said:

The printing of the phrase 'The Muslim Problem' -- particularly with the capitalisation and italics for emphasis -- in a national newspaper sets a dangerous precedent, and harks back to the use of the phrase 'The Jewish Problem' in the last century.

More than 100 MPs have also signed a statement accusing the Sun of 'hatred and bigotry'.

Update: Best not talk about problems in the muslim community lest you get sacked

17th August 2017 See  article from independent.co.uk

Shadow equalities minister Sarah Champion has resigned from her frontbench position following a row over an article she wrote in the Sun newspaper, noting that British Pakistani men are raping and exploiting white girls.  The article ran with the headline: British Pakistani men ARE raping and exploiting white girls -- and it's time we face up to it.

In a statement the Rotherham MP said she apologised for any offence cause by the extremely poor choice of words which appeared in the newspaper five days' ago.

Champion hit the headlines last week when she warned people were failing to tell the truth about child abuse because they were afraid of being called racist, following the conviction of 18 men involved in a grooming gang. It was predominately Pakistani men who were involved in such cases time and time again.

 

 

Still corrupting a weakly few of the king's subjects...

Fanny Hill: why people keep trying to ban the racy novel about a woman of pleasure, and why the press reports of a ban is 'fake' news


Link Here16th August 2017

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus of Modern English Literature at UCL. He wrote in the Guardian about the appranet 'banning' of Fanny Hill at Royal Holloway, University of London/ He wrote:

Many will have read the Fanny is banned story and thought: Those millennial nervous nellies, whatever next? My guess is that it is silly-season tosh. The book will be referred to, as necessary and instructive, but is not required reading. The professor who is alleged to have done the banning is Judith Hawley. I know her personally. She is the world's leading authority on Tristram Shandy, a novel thought so improper even Cleland called its author, Laurence Sterne, a pornographer.

Read the full article from theguardian.com

Now Judith Hawley, the academic associated with the 'ban' has responded in the Guardian saying that the 'ban' was misreported nonsense. She explained:

I didn't, as I was accused in the papers, remove Fanny Hill from the university course reading list for The Age of Oppositions, 1660-1780 following a consultation with students as the Times reported. It was never on the course, therefore it could not have been withdrawn ( or banned, as the Evening Standard put it ).

But she does go on to trying arguing that the academic environment of trigger words, no platforming and offence taking more an 'evolution' of free speech rather than reprehensible censorship. She said:

But it would be wrong to represent all current students as refusing to listen to views they don't want to hear. Rather, we could think about this in terms of an evolution in free speech. Students are raising questions about who has the right to speak, the right to determine the agenda, and calling for a diversity of writers to be taught.

See the full article from theguardian.com

 

 

You can't say that!...

Fashion shop sign saying 'send me nudes' taken down after petition


Link Here16th August 2017
This week, fashion chain Missguided agreed to take down a neon sign displayed in two of their stores, following thousands of complaints from outraged parents.

Missguided, a clothing store aimed at young women and teenagers, had put up a pink neon sign in their Stratford Westfield and Trafford Park stores saying: Send me nudes.

A petition in protest was set up by President of Girls' Brigade England and Wales Rachel Gardener, and signed by over 8,000 people. The petition read:

Teenage girls feel under increasing pressure to create and send nude pictures of themselves.

It is illegal in the UK for nude images of under 18's to be created, sent and shared.

In posting 'Send me nudes' in their store, Missguided are promoting a negative and damaging culture.

Instead, they should be empowering young women to value their intrinsic value and express their uniqueness through the art of fashion.

The sign has now been taken down.

 

 

Site Supremecy...

GoDaddy and Google are within their rights to deny website hosting to the Daily Stormer


Link Here15th August 2017
Internet-domain provider GoDaddy gave far right website The Daily Stormer the boot after the site published a derogatory story about a 32-year-old woman killed at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

Earlier on Monday, Google Domains became the registrar for the site. However, Google later said in a statement it's cancelling The Daily Stormer's registration for violating its terms of service.

This raises issues around what domain-hosting companies are responsible for, and where they draw the line on objectionable material. Legally webhosts are only required to close down websites on grounds of a federal crime. However, as a private business, website-hosting companies have the right to decide with whom they conduct business, and GoDaddy's decision does not violate the First Amendment, according to experts.

GoDaddy told CNN Tech:

While we detest the sentiment of such sites, we support a free and open Internet and, similar to the principles of free speech, that sometimes means allowing such tasteless, ignorant content. In this case, The Daily Stormer crossed the line and encouraged and promoted violence.

 

 

But it's not only the right that is out of favour with the internet gatekeepers...

The World Socialist Web Site claims that Google has been pushing sites like itself out of search results presumably so that we are all nudged into reading mainstream media sites instead


Link Here 15th August 2017
Data compiled by the World Socialist Web Site, with the assistance of other Internet-based news outlets and search technology experts, indicates that a massive loss of readership observed by socialist, anti-war and progressive web sites over the past three months has been caused by a cumulative 45%decrease in traffic from Google searches.

The drop followed the implementation of changes in Google's search evaluation protocols. In a statement issued on April 25, Ben Gomes, the company's vice president for engineering, stated that Google's update of its search engine would block access to offensive sites, while working to surface more authoritative content.

The World Socialist Web Site has obtained statistical data from SEMrush estimating the decline of traffic generated by Google searches for 13 sites with substantial readerships. The results are as follows:

* wsws.org fell by 67%
* alternet.org fell by 63%
* globalresearch.ca fell by 62%
* consortiumnews.com fell by 47%
* socialistworker.org fell by 47%
* mediamatters.org fell by 42%
* commondreams.org fell by 37%
* internationalviewpoint.org fell by 36%
* democracynow.org fell by 36%
* wikileaks.org fell by 30%
* truth-out.org fell by 25%
* counterpunch.org fell by 21%
* theintercept.com fell by 19%

wsws.org has launched a petition against Google's downgrading of these news websites.

 

 

But its not only the left and right that is out of favour with the internet gatekeepers...

LGBTQ folk are being censored by Facebook's poor quality keyword algorithms that are designed to protect them


Link Here15th August 2017

As queer artists and activists, we're alarmed by a new trend: Many LGBTQ people's posts have been blocked recently for using words like dyke, fag, or tranny to describe ourselves and our communities.

While these words are still too-often shouted as slurs, they're also frequently reclaimed by queer and transgender people as a means of self-expression. However, Facebook's algorithmic and human reviewers seem unable to accurately parse the context and intent of their usage.

Whether intentional or not, these moderation fails constitute a form of censorship. And just like Facebook's dangerous and discriminatory real names policy , these examples demonstrate how the company's own practices often amplify harassment and cause real harm to marginalized groups.

For example, two individuals wrote that they were reported for posting about the return of graphic novelist Alison Bechdel's celebrated Dykes To Watch Out For comic strip. A gay man posted that he was banned for seven days after sharing a vintage flyer for the 1970s lesbian magazine DYKE , which was recently featured in an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. A queer poet of color's status update was removed for expressing excitement in finding poetry that featured the sex lives of black and brown faggots.

A young trans woman we heard from was banned for a day after referring to herself as a tranny alongside a selfie that proudly showed off her new hair style. After she regained access, she posted about the incident, only to be banned again for three more days.

...Read the full article from wired.com

 

 

OONI...

Monitoring website blocking in 90 countries


Link Here14th August 2017
A new tool wants to make it easy to track internet outages and help people learn how to circumvent them.

The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), which monitors networks for censorship and surveillance, is launching Ooniprobe, a mobile app to test network connectivity and let you know when a website is censored in your area.

The app tests over 1,200 websites, including Facebook ( FB , Tech30 ) , Twitter ( TWTR , Tech30 ) and WhatsApp.

Created in 2012 under the Tor Project, OONI monitors networks in more than 90 countries through its desktop and hardware trackers, which are available to anyone. It publishes censorship data on its site . The organization has confirmed censorship cases in a number of countries, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ethiopia and Sudan.

The website has recently introduced a mobile app so that OONI can reach more people potentially affected by internet outages, especially in emerging markets where smartphones are more common than computers.

 

 

In for a long hunt...

A spat between the Countryside Alliance and the BBC reveals that there could be a lengthy BBC complaints process before complaints reach Ofcom for final arbitration


Link Here13th August 2017

The BBC is currently overhauling its complaints system after Ofcom took over censorship duties in April, replacing the BBC Trust. However there is still a part of the process where viewers have to complain to the BBC first before seeking recourse with Ofcom.

The Countryside Alliance has clashed with BBC bosses over the new framework which the group believes does not improve the process and only allows viewers to go to Ofcom after a three stage process. In a letter to the corporation, Tim Bonner, the alliance's chief executive, said this process could take several months and urged a rethink. He wrote:

Given the timescales for responding, it is likely that it could take several months before a complaint could be seen by Ofcom if the complainant were unhappy with the responses received from the BBC. We are not satisfied that this provides the expected level of oversight which Ofcom was intended to have in the new Charter.

The Countryside Alliance, a group lobbying for hunting and shooting, previously came off worse when complaining that Springwatch presenter Chris Packham referred to them as the 'Nasty Brigade' in a BBC magazine article. Presumably they feel that when they did not get what they wanted from the BBC Trust then they would like to give Ofcom a shot.

Bonner said that the alliance had submitted a number of complaints to the BBC and BBC Trust over the past 18 months which have not been upheld.  He added:

We would have welcomed the opportunity to pursue our complaints with Ofcom at the earliest possible opportunity in order for an external regulator to review the complaints independently.

The BBC's royal charter specifically allows the BBC to try to try to resolve complaints in the first instance before they are passed to Ofcom.

 

 

Stony reception...

Statute of Chinese god covered up in Indonesia in response to muslim threats


Link Here13th August 2017
After Muslims threatened to tear down a 100-ft statue of a Chinese god, authorities in Indonesia's East Java Province moved swiftly to cover it up with an enormous sheet last weekend amid mounting ethnic and religious tensions across the country.

The Islamist campaign against the statue, a depiction of the third-century general Guan Yu, who is worshiped as a god in several Chinese religions, began online and soon spread to the gates of a Chinese Confucian temple in Tuban, near the Java Sea coast, where the figure was erected last month.

On social media, Muslims assailed the statue as an uncivilized affront to Islam and the island's home people, and a mob gathered this week outside the East Java legislature in the city of Surabaya to demand its destruction.

 

 

Offsite Article: Ethical referees...


Link Here13th August 2017
Ofcom to unpick ethical dilemmas caused by the authorities once putting political correctness before justice when dealing with muslim grooming gangs

See article from birminghammail.co.uk

 

 

Update: Political sensitivities...

Thai court confirms the ban on the film Shakespeare Must Die


Link Here12th August 2017
Shakespeare Must Die is a 2012 Thailand horror drama by Ing Kanjanavanit.
Starring Pirun Anusuriya, Sudhisak Bamrungtrakun and Minta Bhanaparin. YouTube icon IMDb

Thailand's Administrative Court has rejected a petition by the producer and director of a feature film against a ban imposed by the Film and Video Censorship Committee five years ago.

Shakespeare Must Die was banned from being screened in Thailand on the grounds that the movie's political content might cause divisiveness among people in the country. 

The film, directed by Smanrat Ing K Kanjanavanich and produced by Manit Sriwanichpoom, is an adaptation of Macbeth , a tragedy by English writer William Shakespeare. It depicted both an ambitious general who becomes king through murder, and another world in which the country's leader believes in superstitious, megalomaniac and murderous dictatorship. He is known only as Dear Leader and has a scary, high-society wife. The movie clearly alluded to prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was popular with working people but alienated the Thai elite.

The Administrative Court ruled that even though the story is fictional, the movie's content might cause disunity among people. It contains scenes based on a photograph from Bangkok's 1976 student uprising and violent scenes from red-shirt demonstrations.

Manit said the filmmakers would appeal the court's verdict. I feel like we didn't get justice, he said.

 

 

Update: An end to the stand against vulgarity and pseudo-liberalism...

India sacks its crazed chief censor


Link Here 12th August 2017
Pahlaj Nihalani has been sacked as the chief censor of India's board of film censors, the CBFC. He said that he had no regret about being asked to step down, is proud of being labelled as Sanskari censor chief and had in fact been preparing for his exit since the last six months.

Nihalani had wound up the Indian film industry with a serious of moralistic and pedantic censorship rules that led to a long trail of excessive cuts and bans.

Nihalani, who was appointed to the post in 2015, a year after Modi became the Prime Minister, has been replaced by writer-lyricist-and advertising exec, Prasoon Joshi. Nihalani commented:

We've speeded up the certification process and made it entirely digital. I just hope my successor doesn't succumb to false notions of liberalism propagated by the pseudo-progressive elements in our film industry and work in a direction opposed to mine.

Do I have any regrets? None at all. I worked in all sincerity and with utmost honesty. In the process, I offended a lot of the so-called progressive elements. I also got labelled a 'Sanskari' censor chief. I am proud of that label.

I hope I am remembered as the CBFC chairperson who took a firm stand against vulgarity and pseudo-liberalism, no matter how unpopular it made me.

 

 

Tip toeing on religious sensitivities...

Orthodox christians in Russia petition to ban the film Matilda


Link Here12th August 2017
Matilda is a 2017 Russia historical biography by Aleksey Uchitel.
Starring Michalina Olszanska, Lars Eidinger and Luise Wolfram. IMDb

In the twilight of Imperial Russia, prima ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya becomes the mistress of three Grand Dukes.

Russian Orthodox Christians have protested against the decision to release a film depicting Nicholas II's affair with a teenage ballerina. Wannabe censors of Matilda have started a petition against the film.

Earlier this month, several hundred people gathered to outside a Moscow church, praying for the movie to be banned. Many of the film's critics see it as blasphemy against the emperor, who is still greatly revered by the Russian Orthodox Church.

On Thursday, however, the Russian Culture Ministry finally announced that the film had received official clearance for release. Vyasheslav Telnov, the head of the Russian Culture Ministry's film department, said:

There is no censorship in Russia, and the ministry of culture stays away from any ideological views of beliefs. A feature film can't be banned for political or ideological motives.

Nevertheless, the Russian Orthodox Church still exercises significant pressure in Russia. It has recently played a role in the shutting down of an exhibition displaying nude photos and the cancellation of a performance of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

 

 

Offsite Article: No, satire isn't dead...It's resting...


Link Here12th August 2017
Safe choices and repetition have put lampooning comedy on its knees. By Keith Allen

See article from theneweuropean.co.uk

 

 

An eyeful of political correctness...

ASA advert censors whinge about night club advert that they claim references porn facials


Link Here11th August 2017

Two posts on the promoter's Facebook page advertising his Coco Beach Monday's club night at Lola Lo nightclub in Bristol.:

  • a. A post seen on their own Facebook page on 13 April 2017 included a picture of a female with her head titled back, her mouth wide open, her tongue extended out of her mouth and liquid being dropped in her eye with the accompanying text FREE BUBBLY & VIP FOR GROUPS DISCOUNTED DRINKS & BIG TUNES ALL NIGHT.

  • b. An event invite for the Coco Beach Mondays club night seen on the complainants Facebook feed on 13 April 2017 included the same picture as above with the accompanying text Nice artwork 206 haha leaving to the imagination whats [sic] out of shot!.Issue

The ASA challenged whether the ads:

  • 1. linked alcohol with sexual activity; and

  • 2. featured alcohol being served irresponsibly.

The ASA also received two complaints:

  • 3. Both complainants believed that the image was sexually explicit and objectified women and challenged whether the ads were offensive.

ASA Assessment: complaints upheld

The ASA was concerned by Coco Beach Monday's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, and ruled that they had breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future.

1. Upheld

We considered that the way the model was posed with her head titled back, her mouth wide open with her tongue extended out and the liquid being poured out of shot, meant that the image was inherently sexual in nature. We considered that although the exact type of liquid being poured in to the models eye was not revealed in the image, it was heavily implied to be alcohol. Further, the text contained in the image promoted free bubbly and discounted drinks available at the club night. We therefore considered that because the image used in the ads was inherently sexual in nature and the text promoted free alcohol at the event, that it linked alcohol with sexual activity and therefore breached the Code.

2. Upheld

The ads demonstrated alcohol being administered through the eyeball, known as eyeballing. This method of alcohol consumption had associated health risks. We concluded that the ads portrayed a style of drinking that was unwise and showed alcohol being handled irresponsibly and therefore was in breach of the Code.

3. Upheld

We considered the image used in the ads to be sexually gratuitous and provocative, and that it mimicked the style of facial pornography. This was further emphasised in ad (b) by the accompanying comment, which stated that the Facebook user should imagine where the liquid came from. We considered that the image that appeared in both ads, taken together with the sexually suggestive comment that accompanied ad (b), objectified women. We therefore considered that the ads were sexist and likely to cause serious wide spread offence.

Action

The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told Coco Beach Monday's to ensure their future advertising was prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society, and to ensure they did not link alcohol to sexual activity or to show alcohol being handled or served irresponsibly. Further, we told them that they should ensure their ads did not contain anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

 

 

The Emoji Movie...

BBFC suggest cuts for a U rating lest the little sentiments get all offended


Link Here11th August 2017
The Emoji Movie is a 2017 USA children's cartoon comedy by Tony Leondis.
Starring TJ Miller, Anna Faris and Sofía Vergara. BBFC link IMDb

UK: 2D and 3D versions were passed U for mild rude humour, comic threat, very mild bad language after BBFC advised pre-cuts for:

  • 2017 cinema release
The BBFC commented:
  • This film was originally seen for advice, at which stage the company was advised it was likely to be classified PG but that their preferred U could be achieved by removing some mild bad language. When the film was submitted for formal classification, the mild bad language in question had been removed and the film was therefore classified U.

Summary Notes

The Emoji Movie unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone. Hidden within the messaging app is Textopolis, a bustling city where all your favorite emojis live, hoping to be selected by the phone's user. In this world, each emoji has only one facial expression - except for Gene, an exuberant emoji who was born without a filter and is bursting with multiple expressions. Determined to become "normal" like the other emojis, Gene enlists the help of his handy best friend Hi-5 and the notorious code breaker emoji Jailbreak. Together, they embark on an epic "app-venture" through the apps on the phone, each its own wild and fun world, to find the Code that will fix Gene. But when a greater danger threatens the phone, the fate of all emojis depends on these three unlikely friends who must save their world before it's deleted forever.

 

 

... Oustanding nipples at the CBFC...

Indian film censors make significant cuts to Atomic Blonde


Link Here11th August 2017
Charlize Theron and Sofia Boutella's lesbian sex scene from their new film, Atomic Blonde, has been totally cut by Indian film censors at the CBFC.  The list of CBFC cuts says:

Delete the visual of the hand touching the bare breast in bed of two ladies, and delete the entire love-making (having sex).

In addition to the sex scene, shots of Theron's bare butt in the bathtub have been asked to be removed. Shots of her nipples visible under a sweater, and a separate scene in which she is topless, have also been ordered out. Words like cunt, cock, balls, bitchh, prick , and cocksuker have been asked to be removed from the subtitles, but not from the soundtrack.

 

 

The Cable Guy...

Previous BBFC cuts waived for 2017 home video


Link Here10th August 2017
Cable Guy Full ScreenThe Cable Guy is a 1996 USA comedy thriller by Ben Stiller.
Starring Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick and Leslie Mann. BBFC link IMDb

An upcoming video release has just been passed 12 uncut for moderate sex references, violence with previous BBFC cuts waived.

UK Censorship History

BBFC category cuts were required for a 12 rated 1996 cinema release and the subsequent VHS releases. The BBFC cuts were waived for 12 rated 2017 home video. The film is uncut and PG-13 rated in the US.

From IMDb. Previously a single 4 sec cut was made to this black comedy, in order to secure a required 12 cert.

  • The cut occurs towards the end, when Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick, are fighting on top of the TV satellite. A couple of shots of Carrey headbutting Broderick and an ear clap have been removed.

 

 

Update: Bad Iman...

Ofcom closes Iman FM for condoning, promoting and encouraging violent behaviour towards non-Muslim people


Link Here10th August 2017
Full story: Ofcom on Religion...ofcom keep religious extremism in check

Notice of Licence Revocation
Iman Media UK Limited

Iman FM is a community radio station broadcasting to the Muslim community in Sheffield and the surrounding areas. The licence for this service is held by Iman Media UK Limited.

This revocation concerns the broadcast of a number of lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki throughout the holy month of Ramadan. In breach decisions published on 5 July 2017 and 27 July 20174, Ofcom found that the broadcast of the lectures breached a number of rules including Rule 3.1 of the Code:

Material likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder must not be included in television or radio services.

Ofcom considered the breaches of Rule 3.1 to be extremely serious.  Ofcom wrote in the Complaints Bulletin:

In  Ofcom's view the cumulative effect was to condone, promote and encourage violent behaviour towards non-Muslim people. Further, the lectures appeared to link violent acts of the past with actions that might potentially be taken today. Ofcom took the view that the content therefore amounted to a call to action which was likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime or lead to disorder.

It is also our view the material amounted to hate speech, as it was both abusive and derogatory towards non-Muslim people, and in particular, Jewish people. In our view, this content had clear potential to be highly offensive

Under section 111B of the Broadcasting Act 1990, in certain circumstances Ofcom may suspend a licence if the licence holder has broadcast material likely to encourage or incite the commission of a crime or lead to disorder. After considering the Licensee’s representations, Ofcom may then revoke the licence if it is satisfied it is necessary in the public interest to do so.

Ofcom served a suspension notice on the Licensee on 4 July 2017.

In Ofcom’s view the contraventions of the Code and the Licensee’s compliance failures were so extremely serious, and the Licensee’s conduct was so extremely reckless, that we had no confidence that the Licensee would be capable of complying with its licence conditions or that similar breaches would be prevented in the future. On this basis, in Ofcom’s view it was necessary in the public interest to revoke the licence and proportionate to decide that these breaches and failures justified the revocation.

Ofcom also considered that the Licensee’s failures rendered it unfit to hold a broadcast licence.

 

 

Offsite Article: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs...


Link Here10th August 2017
BBFC's latest from their archive discusses 1937 cuts

See article from bbfc.co.uk

 

 

IPSO publishes its Annual Report...

And applauds the Daily Mail for being the top newspaper


Link Here6th August 2017

Our annual reports are, of course, about fulfilling the requirements spelt out in our regulations, so financial information and a full list of our regulated publications are naturally included. However, it is also an opportunity to reflect on the successes and the practical ways in which we've provided protection for those who feel they've been wronged by the press while at the same time protecting the freedom of speech.

This year, the report looks in much more detail at our complaints statistics. We've provided figures on investigated complaints for each of our 80 plus publishers and also detailed the number of resolved complaints, breaches 203 along with what sanctions were applied -- and the numbers of complaints that were not upheld.

For the first time, we've included the 25 publications that generated the highest number of complaints during the year along with the results of any resulting investigations.

  1. Daily Mail
  2. The Sun
  3. Mail Online
  4. Daily Express
  5. The Times
  6. The Daily Telegraph
  7. Daily Star
  8. thesun.co.uk
  9. The Mail on Sunday
  10. Sunday Life

In a year where IPSO received a record number of complaints and enquiries, the stats throw up a number (pun intended) of really interesting details. One that stands out for me is the increase in the amount of complaints that were resolved between complainant and publication 203 either with or without IPSO mediating. In 2015, there were 269 resolutions and in 2016, that number had risen to 334. Such resolution is means quicker redress and to me shows that our publications take redress seriously. I hear my colleagues speaking every day with complainants and these resolution statistics are a testament to their work in finding a mutually agreed solution to what might first look like an intractable problem.

 

 

Offsite Article: Policing the internet...


Link Here6th August 2017
In the wake of the latest destabilizing cyber attacks, some Western leaders like Theresa May are joining Russia and China to urge state policing of the internet. This is not wise. By Alexander Klimburg

See article from thedailybeast.com

 

 

Offsite Article: BBFC Podcast 70: Game of Thrones...


Link Here5th August 2017
The BBFC get all coy about describing the classification issues wih the Battle of Bastards

See article from bbfc.co.uk

 

 

Offsite Article: Voices of Moderation banned...


Link Here5th August 2017
Malaysian book censors ban 8 books since March

See article from themalaysianinsight.com

 

 

Lego Ninjago Season 6...

BBFC category cuts required for one episode of a children's cartoon


Link Here4th August 2017
Lego Ninjago Season 6 is an action animation adventure by Peter Hausner. BBFC link

UK: Season 6, Episode 6, My Dinner With Nadakhan was passed PG for mild violence after 1s of BBFC category cuts for:

  • 2017 Warner video
The BBFC commented:
  • Company chose to remove a use of discriminatory language ('spazzing') in order to obtain a PG classification. An uncut 12 classification was available.
US: Uncut and MPAA Unrated for:

 

 

Update: Freely criticised...

The UN Human Rights Committee has told Pakistan to improve human rights and end its blasphemy laws


Link Here4th August 2017
The UN's Human Rights Committee has told Pakistan to end its blasphemy laws and do more to protect religious minorities.

It criticised the Pakistani government's wider record on free expression, including its use of religiously biased content in textbooks and curricula in public schools and madrassas. Defamation is a criminal offence in Pakistan, and there have been legal crackdowns on the media.

It said Pakistan should review its laws relating to freedom of expression and repeal all blasphemy laws or amend them in compliance with the strict requirements of the covenant. Article 19 of Pakistan's constitution gives citizens the right to free expression, but allows for reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the 'glory of Islam'. Pakistan has also limited free speech for its broadcast media.

The committee asked Pakistan to report within a year to explain how it is implementing its recommendations on freedom of religion, conscience and belief.


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