Bible 'not obscene'

Bible 'not obscene'
Hong Kong rules Scriptures' sexual content not indecent

Hong Kong's media regulator said it would not reclassify the Bible as an indecent publication following more than 2,000 complaints about its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

"The Bible is a religious text which is part of civilisation. It has been passed from generation to generation," the Television and Licensing Authority (TELA) ruled last night.

The Christian book was drawn into a row over indecent publications after a sex column in a student magazine was branded too disturbing for young eyes.

The article in "Student Press," published by students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, asked readers whether they had fantasized about incest and bestiality. Last week the Obscene Articles Tribunal labelled it "indecent", meaning that the publication must carry a warning label and can only be sold to over-18s.

A website launched soon afterwards, truthbible.net, campaigned for the Bible to be similarly classified. Claiming to be published by an anonymous "Hong Kong student", it cited passages with sexual and violent content it claimed went beyond that of the sex column.

At the top, the site carried an English-language warning: "Legal Disclaimer Warning: This Web site contains Bible material which may offend and may not be distributed, circulated, sold, hired, given, lent, shown, played or projected to a person under the age of 18 years."

Visitors were encouraged to download forms to complain about the Bible to TELA.

The regulator received 2,041 such complaints in the last week, but said it would not submit the Bible to the tribunal for obscene classification.

The Bible "had not violated standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable members of the community", TELA said in a statement.

A Hong Kong protestant pastor agreed. "If there is rape mentioned in the Bible, it doesn’t mean it encourages those activities," said Rev Wu Chi-wai.