The Communist regime in China is mulling to introduce new measures of censorship to filter out what it assumes to be ‘illegal content’. As per the latest diktat from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Tuesday (August 10), China will blacklist songs containing ‘illegal content’ from karaoke venues in the country from October 1 onwards.
As per reports, the Chinese government has clarified that illegal content would include the songs that “endangers national unity, sovereignty or territory integrity; violates China’s religious policies and spreads cults and superstitions; and advocates obscenity, gambling, violence and drug-related crimes or instigating crimes”. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that content providers, engaged with karaoke venues, would audit the songs. It must be mentioned that the country has over 50,000 karaoke venues with a basic music library of over 1 lakh songs. With the new guidelines, the venue operators are faced with an uphill task to scrutiny the songs for ‘illegal content.’
China has also directed the content providers to supply the music, which is healthy and uplifting, to the entertainment venues. The Communist regime in the country removes content such as comments critical of the ruling CCP, pornography, and violence from social media platforms. It has also penalised live streaming platforms for supposedly hosting ‘low taste’ content. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), the country has earlier censored songs with titles such as ‘I Love Taiwanese Girls,’ ‘Fart,’ ‘Beijing Hooligans’ and ‘Don’t Want to Go to School.’
Chinese government bans BBC for ‘false and partial reporting’
Earlier in February this year, the Chinese media regulator – National Radio and Television Administration in a statement said that they would ban BBC World News. It said that BBC’s coverage on China had violated guidelines of ‘true and impartial’ reporting that undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity. “The channel fails to meet the requirements to broadcast in China as an overseas channel,” the Radio and Television Administration said, stating that it would not accept BBC’s broadcast application for the following year. Reacting to the Chinese ban, the BBC said it was “disappointed”. The United States, along with the UK, had condemned China’s decision to ban the BBC in that country.