bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Kylie Knott

Plonking down on a friend’s sofa, I braced myself for some trashy screen therapy courtesy of Now TV. The last thing I expected was the star of the show: the censors.
In one soapy moment – in a show called Mistresses, or something like that – two women are talking about their sex lives.
“He didn’t give me just one [silence] but three [silence].”
Sorry, what are you on about? He gave you three oranges? He gave you three orangutans?
Radio Television Hong Kong angry about TVB pulling satirical programme on Xi Jinping visit
What is wrong with Star World? Why has the female orgasm been reduced to a dirty word – given the same silent treatment as f**k and s**t and other four-letter terms that hang out with asterisks?
And it’s not just the words, the pictures also have the censors working overtime. In another show, the pixelation button went into overdrive to conceal a woman’s décolletage as she leaned over to remove ... a tray from an oven (yes, censorship is alive and kicking on those filthy cooking shows). The madness continued into the night, when a programme that sets out to discover the next big fashion model – you know the one I mean – showed one woman with a huge chunk of her chest pixelated for fear the viewer might glimpse a nipple through her shirt. It seems those pixel fairies like to stay up late – just like adults (hear that Star World? ADULTS).
So blood, gore and violence are OK (and don’t get me wrong, I love a good ol’ battle scene) but heaven forbid we might see a bit of cleavage or hear a reference to sexual pleasure.
BBC edits out lesbian kiss from Doctor Who episode shown in Hong Kong
According to Wikipedia, Star World is “a 24-hour Asian English language cable and satellite television channel owned by STAR TV and Fox Networks Group” that “mostly syndicates popular shows from the United States, the United Kingdom and sometimes Australia to appeal to English-speaking locals as well as the expatriate population of South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia”.
Appeal? I don’t think so.
What the channel does manage to do, however, is turn dramas and reality shows into comedies – which, I suppose, is quite an achievement in itself.
Thank the lords for downloads and Netflix, so that us adults can enjoy our favourite shows without losing the plot – in more ways than one.


Opinion: TV censorship alive and kicking in Hong Kong

Now TV and Star World on censorship overdrive as, in one case, the word ‘orgasm’ is given the silent treatment while in another a modest cleavage gets pixelated

Illustration: Brian Wang

Censorship on Hong Kong television is a big turn-off.

BBC edits out lesbian kiss from Doctor Who episode shown in Hong Kong

The kiss was edited out in Asia. Photo: Red Door News 

Radio Television Hong Kong angry about TVB pulling satirical programme on Xi Jinping visit

Public broadcaster makes formal complaint to regulator about move, which TVB claimed was done to broadcast breaking news; instead it broadcast a re-run on Xi

RTHK's " Headliner" Photo: RTHK

Radio Television Hong Kong was unhappy over the decision to pull the programme. Photo: Dickson Lee

Magazines

PostMag

Short Reads

Culture

Lifestyle

Arts

Now TV and Star World on censorship overdrive as, in one case, the word ‘orgasm’ is given the silent treatment while in another a modest cleavage gets pixelated
