China Bans Immoral Content From Television
The Chinese government has announced it was going to ban all immoral content on state TV. Authorities will censor homosexuality, same-sex as well as under-age relationships, and sexual violence on television. They claim that TV programs that show what they call "the dark side of society" may damage the country's image and promote immoral lifestyles among the Chinese population.
The ban also includes excessive smoking, drinking, gruesome criminal cases and far-fetched issues like witchcraft. Chinese media authorities have stated that they would watch TV channels carefully to see that the new laws are enforced.
In the past China's censors have already shut down shows that are seen as immoral. A TV show called "The Empress of China" was stopped because of too much skin shown between a woman's breasts . In September 2015 a documentary about a gay Chinese man was banned from all websites.
Last week "Addicted Heroin", a same-sex drama was banned from streaming websites. The show can only be seen on YouTube, which is officially blocked in China.
The ban on immoral content will especially hit rising new video websites which, up to now, have been able to show such shows due to the lack of government regulations. Last year Chinese video platforms have produced over 800 of their own shows.
Liberals in China have protested massively against the new laws. They have been fighting for a long time against the government's attitude towards homosexuality, which was considered a mental disease up to 2001.
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Words
- announce = to say officially
- attitude = here: the way someone thinks about a topic
- authorities = organisation that makes decisions and has a lot of power
- ban = forbid, not allow
- block = not show
- censor = here: decide which programs cannot be shown
- claim = to say that something is true
- considered = thought
- damage = do harm to
- documentary = film or television program that gives facts about a certain topic
- due to = because of
- enforce = to make people obey and accept a law
- especially = above all
- excessive = too much
- far-fetched = unlikely to be true and difficult to believe
- gay = homosexual
- government = the people who rule a country
- gruesome = brutal, horrible to watch
- homosexuality = when a man or woman is attracted to a person of the same sex
- immoral content = everything that is wrong and not accepted behaviour in our world
- include = also contains
- issue = topic, theme
- lack = not enough of
- law = rules that a country has
- liberal = person who believes people should have more rights and freedom in society
- massively = very strongly
- mental disease = illness that affects the brain
- officially = formally, by law
- population = people of a country
- promote = encourage or persuade people to do something
- regulations = rules
- society = people in general
- state = to say that something is true
- streaming = to watch or listen to content directly from the internet
- under-age relationship =here: if an adult has a sexual relationship with a teenager who is too young
- violence = actions that want to hurt or kill people
- witchcraft =the activity of performing magic to help or harm other people