Eurovision cancelled for Chinese viewers

The contract to broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest in China has been cancelled after Chinese media censored LGBT images.

The European Broadcasting Union has cancelled the contract of China's Mango TV to screen the finale of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Mango is one of China's top TV operators, and is part of the Hunan Television group that has multiple business relationships with Lionsgate.

The decision was taken after Mango TV edited the Wednesday transmission of the semi-final, to remove gay elements. The EBU said that the editing was not in line with its policy on diversity.

"(The cuts do not reflect our) values of universality and inclusivity and our proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music," the EBU said in a statement.

"It is with regret that we will therefore immediately be terminating our partnership with the broadcaster and they will not be permitted to broadcast the second Semi-Final or the Grand Final."

Mango TV cut is transmission of the Irish song performance, which included two men dancing together, as well as the Albanian performance. It also blurred out rainbow flags, which are symbols of LGBT pride, and images of performers with tattoos.

Over the past year, the Chinese government has been taking an increasingly conservative world view. It is imposing that stance, and a return to "core Socialist values" within its own borders through increasingly interventionist control over the Chinese Internet and social media.

Earlier this year, the government pushed back against elements of decadent western culture, specifying performers with exposed tattoos, homosexuality and hip-hop music as undesirable elements.

Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1997 and cased to be classified as a mental disorder from 2001. But it remains socially moot.


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Published 12 May 2018 7:30pm
Source: AAP


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