HONG KONG - Recent debate over indecency in Hong Kong's media took an ironic turn on Wednesday with reports that the Television and Entertainments Licensing Authority (TELA) has received over 200 obscenity complaints about the Holy Bible.
According to the Mail and Guardian, local sources speculated that conservative Chinese website, www.truthbible.com solicited readers to pressure the organization in an attempt to reclassify the Bible as an indecent publication.
"I can confirm that the complaints were received," a TELA spokesperson told the Mail & Guardian. "The thrust of the complaints was that the Bible was obscene; that different parts of the Bible were offensive to readers."
TELA, which oversees the publishing industry in Hong Kong, refused to divulge any specific details of the complaints. However, according to the Mail & Guardian, local media reported that the complaints referred to acts of violence, rape and cannibalism in the Old and New Testaments.
A Chinese university publication created a controversy last month by issuing a sex survey which the Obscene Articles Tribunal deemed indecent. The group took issue with the student journal's questions concerning bestiality and incest. The ruling sparked an angry reaction students who protested that authorities were unfairly regulating freedom of speech in Hong Kong.
Legal
- By
