- Title: China censors South Park after China episode
- Date: 8th October 2019
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (OCTOBER 8, 2019) (REUTERS) CHINESE FLAG, PEDESTRIANS WALKING ON STREET PEDESTRIANS WALKING, CAR DRIVING (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) UNIVERSITY STUDENT, 23, KAN HAOXUAN, SAYING: "I think it must be very common that it is censored in China. I don't know the exact reason that caused it to get censored. So I can't make a very accurate judgement. But I think it's very normal that a cartoon was banned. I don't know why." CHINESE FLAG FLYING SURVEILLANCE CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 28, YAN GAOKUN, SAYING: "There are lot of cartoons out there. Some you want to watch and some you don't want to watch. You should ban what should be banned, like those that call for Tibetan independence, or members from the Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organisation in Xinjiang and things like that. In fact these things have a very negative impact on society. So I support this kind of action." PEOPLE CYCLING ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) UNIVERSITY STUDENT, 23, WANG HE, SAYING: "I think our country overprotects students. It's not good. But in this kind of context, it is reasonable that the Chinese government censors certain comments that other countries use for political (means)." SECURITY CAMERA
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 12:51
- Keywords: South Park China Censorship NBA Daryl Morey Houston Rockets
- Location: BEIJING, CHINA/INTERNET
- City: BEIJING, CHINA/INTERNET
- Country: China
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001B08IXXJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: China's censors moved to ban the U.S. cartoon "South Park" from the internet after an episode satirising Beijing's policies on free speech aired.
The "Band in China" episode, released on Oct. 2, particularly made fun of efforts by Hollywood to shape its movie and television content in recent years to avoid angering censors in the vast Chinese market.
Several residents in Beijing told Reuters on Tuesday (October 8) they found the censorship understandable, but had never seen or heard of the show.
A Reuters search online showed that iQiyi and Youku Tudou, two Chinese video streaming sites, both listed episodes of South Park available to view, but the actual episodes involved did not play when requested. Searching for the show's name on the hugely popular twitter-like social media site, Sina Weibo did not yield any results.
"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone released a mocking "official apology to China" on Twitter.
"Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom," it read.
When asked about the "apology" from Parker and Stone, China's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters that he knew nothing about this situation.
(Production: Martin Pollard, Thomas Suen, Joseph Campbell) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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