A leading Chinese broadcaster has been banned from broadcasting the second semi-final of Eurovision after it censored LGBTI content from the first leg, including “Together” by Ireland’s Ryan O’Shaughnessy. The performance of Mr O’Shaughnessy’s song tells the story of a same-sex romantic relationship and features two male dancers. Mango TV, which is part of China’s second largest broadcaster Hunan TV, also blurred rainbow flags representing the LGBTI community being waved in the audience. In January China stepped up censorship of content it considers “moral degeneracy” and “vulgarity” including people with tattoos and hip-hop. Then last month, the social media Sina Weibo banned gay-themed content to “purify” the online environment.

Source: The Irish Times May 11, 2018 08:48 UTC