Monthly Archives: April 2021

A television station controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran censored over 100 broadcast shots of a female referee during the Sunday British soccer match between Manchester United and Tottenham, sparking criticism on social media because of the regimes sexism.

Sardar Pashaei, a world champion gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling for Iran, tweeted: "Last night, Iran TV interrupted the important game between Manchester United and Tottenham dozens of times, censoring its images, just because one of the referee's match was a woman (@SianMasseyRef)[Sian Massey]. Will @FIFAcom [International Federation of Association Football] voice its objection to this gender discrimination by Iran?

Writing on the website of My Stealthy Freedom, which promotes a campaign against the compulsory hijab in the Islamic Republic, Vahid Ycesoy said that Iranian TV was forced to crudely cut away more than a 100 times from the live game between Premier League giants Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs on Sunday much to bemusement of the viewers.

He added that The reason: one of the assistant referees was a woman!! Shocking though it seems, Islamic Republic leaders do not allow a woman with her hair uncovered and her bare knees to be shown on the state-owned TV.

The Iran expert Ycesoy noted that Typically, movie scenes showing women in what is deemed revealing clothing are censored. But this would have been impossible when broadcasting Sundays match. The television censors were rattled by the presence of a female referee in shorts. Their solution was to cut away from the live action to views of Londons backstreets, which made a mockery of the game. At the end of the game, one of the commentators joked that he hoped the viewers enjoyed the geographic show.

The founder of the My Stealthy Freedom campaign, Masih Alinejad, tweeted: Censorship in Iran: business as usual!

This is not a joke. Iranian state TV cuts off parts of a football match more than 100 times because the assistant referee was a woman wearing shorts.

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He added that It is no secret that women are treated as second class citizens in the Islamic Republic, where compulsory hijab rules are rigidly enforced. Now, even non-Iranians on television must be made to adhere to the countrys draconian laws.

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei, imposed a religious order fatwa that cartoons showing women and animated shows must be depicted wearing a hijab, Ycesoy said.

Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post can exclusively report the reactions by many Iranian political prisoners to the reported extrajudicial killing of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari.

A source familiar with political prisoners in Evin prison told the Post that many prisoners watched the IRIB [Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting] news broadcast about it. Most prisoners rejected the narrative put forward on state TV that he killed someone."

According to the source, "They ran a clip about him for at least 10 minutes trying to justify his killing but most people laughed at this and said it was bullsh*t.

The source added that There were quite a few political prisoners in Evin who had been rounded up for protesting like Navid in late 2019 or for objecting to the downing of the Ukraine plane. So, of course, they were outraged at his execution. Its very sad.

Evin prison in Tehran is notorious for its harsh conditions, including imposing torture on political prisoners.

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Iran censors soccer match over 100 times due to woman referee - The Jerusalem Post

The growing voices from young feminists in China are coming under more scrutiny.PHOTO: NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP

In a country famous for censorship, they talked, freely, of fighting the patriarchy. They questioned everyday sexism at workplaces and in mass media. They promised never to marry men or sleep with them, let alone bearing their children.

The group of women on the fringes of Chinas nascent feminist movement had for years been able to have unfettered discussions on Douban, a book and movie review site thatdoubles as a message board for mostly young, educated Chinese internet users.

But for some of the countrys feminists, the good times may soon be over.

This week, several popular feminist groups were abruptly shut down. Many of the groups had members who adhere to an idea known as 6B4T, which originated from South Koreas radical feminism movement and rejects heterosexual sex, marriage, and child-rearing.

To evade oppression by the male-dominated society, 6B4T also encourages women to abandon tight-fitting dresses, religions, and idols.

In screenshots shared online, Douban told administrators of the banned groups that the forums contained extremism, radical politics, and ideologies. On Tuesday, users were also banned from posting the phrase 6B4T on the sites public message board.

Douban did not respond to a request for comments.

While the vows against sex or marriage have gained little mainstream traction, the closure of the groups have prompted an outcry among female internet users. On the microblogging site Weibo, many women said the radical feminists deserved to be heard, even though they did not agree with the beliefs.

Cindy, a 21-year-old student in the central province of Henan, who declined to give her full name, said she visited two of the now-closed groups almost every day to read about gender discrimination and the fight for equality. One group had more than 40,000 members. She said she would like to stay single, citing posts she read on Douban about societys exploitation of women.

I think this is a way to tell men that women can live in a world without them, she told VICE World News. As long as the feminist fighters are here, we will be able to find new spaces.

Geogriana Lee, a 24-year-old translator in Guangdong, said she would visit the Douban groups to read about others struggles in male-dominated society, and the crackdown has demonstrated how conservative China is.

6B4T is a passive way of resistance and self-protection under the current gender equality situation in East Asia, she said, adding she has no immediate plan to date or get married.

Gender discrimination is prevalent in China. But compared with other political topics, gender issues are generally allowed more space for discussions on the tightly controlled internet. Intense arguments often break out between young feminists and men who accused them of being corrupted by Western values, often using misogynistic language.

Kailing Xie, a researcher on gender and politics at the University of Warwick, said although authorities had traditionally seen feminist movements as trivial and less threatening than other kinds of activism, the growing voices from young, educated women are coming under more official scrutiny.

Chinas governing model is still pretty much relying upon heterosexual marriages as the stabilizer, Xie said. These feminist groups, especially the ones against marriage, against childbirth, are touching the nerves of the fundamental governing structure.

The Communist Party leadership, which places great emphasis on stable families, has recently made divorce more difficult to protect marriages. Chinas plummeting birth rates have led to worries among feminists that the government will step up efforts to push women into having children.

Follow Viola Zhou on Twitter.

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These Chinese Women Vow Never to Marry or Have Sex With Men. Then Censors Stepped In. - VICE

Those awaiting the most eagerly awaited film of the year will, it seems, have to await just a bit longer. John Patrick Shanleys Wild Mountain Thyme will not be available to rent in the Republic of Ireland on April 30th. The distributors have clarified that the twinkly romance, subject of much pre-emptive derision following the dropping of a trailer last November, will be coming to cinemas in the Republic of Ireland this summer.

Viewers in the UK will still be able to view the film digitally from the end of the month. The good burghers of Newry and Coleraine can enjoy Jamie Dornan romancing Emily Blunt in the privacy of their rose-covered shacks. Those in Navan and Cork must wait for the opening of cinemas.

It is most unusual for a release to be made available for digital rental in the UK but not in the Republic of Ireland. Most readers took UK to refer to the combined UK and Irish market as with the United States and Canada, distributors sometimes treat the territories as one and looked forward to an evening of ironic paddywhackery over the bank-holiday weekend.

Conspiracies already abound. Such was the aghast hilarity sometimes bleeding into naked anger at the stage-Irishness of the trailer that, when the film opened in the US, before Christmas, many American reviews referred to the response in Ireland. David Rooneys comments in the Hollywood Reporter were typical: Derisive reaction to the films trailer in the Emerald Isle suggests its less likely to be remembered alongside The Quiet Man than Far and Away, the 1992 Hollywoodized Oirish epic with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

Shanley was dismissive of the blowback. I told Emily when we first talked about this project, Im not making this movie for the Irish. If you try to get the Irish to love you, no good will come of it, he told Variety.

With this in mind, more than a few on social media have suggested that Lionsgate, the films distributor, is trying to hide it from domestic audiences. This seems unlikely. The chatter around the picture would, most likely, only have increased rental demand for a film that received largely negative reviews on its American debut. It looks as if there is a real desire to get the film into cinemas.

Nor is Brexit to blame. The distributor still retains rights to the picture on both sides of the Irish Sea. But this remains a notable anomaly. Memories revive of the bad old days when censored films everything from Brief Encounter to Monty Pythons Life of Brian played merrily in the UK while Irish audiences seethed. Not that Brief Encounter has much else in common with Wild Mountain Thyme.

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Its as if censorship were back: Why Ireland cant watch Wild Mountain Thyme this month - The Irish Times

Screengrab via Fox NewsGov.Ron DeSantisreconnected with a national audience Wednesday, joining Fox and Friends to message against the content curation policies of Google and YouTube again.

The Governor said the tech platforms were anti-science and functioned as a council of censors when they opted to pull down a video of a controversial coronavirus roundtable DeSantis held with doctors earlier this year.

Last week, YouTuberemoved a videoof DeSantisroundtable, which included Drs.Scott Atlas,Jay BhattacharyaandMartin Kulldorff. At issue: medical guidance regarding children and the necessity of masks.

DeSantis, whobrought the doctors backto Tallahassee virtually this week to bemoan the censorship, reprised his objections at length Wednesday.

When you have the ability to debate people and you can marshal facts against certain viewpoints, you do that. When you dont have that, thats when you try to fall back on censorship, DeSantis said.

These are doctors and scientists who have been against the narrative really for the past year, and you know, theyve been right against lockdowns, theyve been right about kids needing to be in school. Obviously, Florida followed a lot of their advice and weve had much more success.

And so if what theyre saying isnt true on science, then show the science that contradicts it, the Governor continued. But Google and YouTube couldnt do that. What Google and YouTube (are) trying to do is serve as a council of censors, where theyre enforcers of the narrative. The narrative is lockdown. The narrative is mask a two year old kid. The narrative is all these different things we kept hearing, and when people counteract that, their instinct is to pull it down.

Very troubling, DeSantis added. Thats not what science is about. Science is always about asking questions, raising concerns, and Google and YouTube are not dedicated to the scientific method.

The Governor said the tech platforms stifled really strong critiques of lockdowns early in the pandemic, censored across all these tech platforms.

They suffocated it at the outset, DeSantis asserted.

The Governor held to that metaphor, adding a bit later that its really hard to just smother those facts and take it down, but thats what theyre doing.

In astatement last week, YouTube spokeswomanElenaHernandezsaid YouTube pulled the video because it included content that contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says YouTube, Google are a 'council of censors' - Creative Loafing Tampa

Chinas influential Douban review and culture online platform has wiped the 2021 Oscars from its site, the latest indication that this years Academy Awards have become a political flashpoint in the worlds largest film market.

Douban is a trend-setting social networking site home to a vibrant message board community and a platform for user reviews for books, music and films. It boasts an impressive catalogue of Oscar data, with homepages for each year logging winners and nominees going back all the way to the first Academy Awards in 1929. As of Friday, however, theres no longer a page for 2021.

Individual films catalogued on Douban also all have a homepage with a comprehensive running list of nominations and awards. Now, however, none of the films nominated for the Oscars this year have that accolade on file. The page for Chlo Zhaos Nomadland, for instance, lists every prize and nod shes won this year from the Online Film Critics Society Awards to the latest Golden Globes, but omits her history-making four Oscar nods.

The Oscars as a whole havent been deleted off Douban, however. Oscar-related discussion groups and forum posts still remain up, and appear to have avoided mass culling thus far.

Why did the entire list of this years Oscar nominees disappear entirely from Douban??? a puzzled user queried on one such message board. Another user answered frankly below: Because a documentary about the Hong Kong protests was nominated.

Doubans decision to wipe the 2021 Academy Awards comes after Chinese authorities last month ordered local media channels not to transmit live coverage of the event and to otherwise downplay the ceremony. Soon after, Hong Kongs top free-to-air TV network Television Broadcasts said it would drop its coverage as well, despite having carried the event every year since 1969.

Beijing has long sought Oscar gold, and in the past has even touted wins from ethnically Chinese non-Chinese nationals as wins for the country. This year is in fact actually a bit of a watershed for China. China-born director Zhao will be in the spotlight, as well as two other Chinese co-productions, animation Over the Moon and drama Better Days, which will vie for gold in the animated and international feature categories, respectively.

But ever since the nominees were announced, internal political issues have dogged celebration of these nods. First, Chinese internet users accused Zhao of slandering China in since-deleted comments made to a U.S. magazine almost a decade ago, possibly putting the late-April China theatrical release for Nomadland in jeopardy. They then upbraided Better Days director Derek Tsang for a since-deleted years-old photo that they said depicted him showing support for the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement, which angered Beijing.

The worst offense, however, is that the Academy nominated Norwegian director Anders Hammers 35-minute film Do Not Split, which chronicles Hong Kongs intense street protests against closer ties with Beijing, to run in the best documentary short subject race. Chinese authorities would never allow footage of such a film being discussed or celebrated to screen in the country.

There does not yet appear to be a blanket directive for all Chinese sites and platforms to follow in Doubans footsteps. Information about the April 25 Oscars were available, for instance, on the online Maoyan ticketing, data and review platform just with Hammers offending title omitted from the list of nominees.

Hammer told Variety that the more China censored coverage related to his short, the more Beijing was simply proving the films point for him.

[Do Not Split] is a movie about how basic democratic rights are challenged and are disappearing in Hong Kong, so [Beijings reaction] is just in line with the story that we are covering in the movie, he said. From how I see they deal with freedom of expression issues in general, unfortunately its not a surprise.

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Chinas Douban Censors the Oscars From Its Platform - Variety

After the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist, teachers in France are very shocked. A survey shows that half of French teachers practice self-censorship in matters of religion. This is reported by the Belgian VRT.

After Samuel Patys death, more and more French people seem to feel a certain pressure to pay attention to what they say. It makes sense, too, because no one wants to be the next beheaded for a wayward Muhammad cartoon. A recent survey shows that no less than 50% of French teachers are of this opinion.

The French principle secularism, the division between Church and State, is partly because of this under enormous pressure. Tolerance towards people with different worldviews and being able to believe what you want in private, without forcing it on others, is no longer taken for granted by everyone in France.

From the VRT report it appears that even if teachers find that they do not even understand the concept correctly explained anymore. It is understood by the students as a prohibition of the faith. Where the French say, You only wear symbols of faith outside of your school, French Muslims experience this as an outright reduction of their religious beliefs.

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This puts things in place in the French school system. Teaching about gender equality in companies is already avoided by a teacher. Another was previously told that his Muslim students would not play that day because of Ramadan. The potential for classroom conflict is already present when it comes to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Islamic minority in France seems to be more and more able (and willing) to impose its will, while the French majority has not yet been able to give a correct answer. And with French President Macron busy tackling the more radical elements, it looks like the tension will only increase in the years to come. In any case, we are a team of freedom of expression!

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Infuriatingly humble social media ninja. Devoted travel junkie. Student. Avid internet lover.

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Allahu Akbar! Half of French teachers censor their own comments on Islam after Samuel Paty's murder - From Daily Standaard - DodoFinance