The Ministry of Information has slapped local cable operator company, J-Sat, with a Rf 2,500 fine for broadcasting images that the Ministry deemed pornographic yet ‘unsatisfying’. This has led to a war of words between the two, with the cable operator now demanding a guideline defining how much porn they are allowed to air per week and at what times.
According to Mini Van News the “fine relates to a scene from a film shown on Italian channel, Rai International after midnight in April, in which a woman appears topless.” Officials at the Ministry of Information were outraged that they had not been notified of it and had missed it completely since they were all asleep at that time. But some locals who been up watching the channel at that time disagreed with the claim of the woman being 'topless' and said the woman "definitely had a top and made sure everyone got a good look at it by wearing nothing!" They weren't too sure about the face though.
Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed had to later download the movie from RapidShare to confirm whether the movie and the scene in question should be considered pornographic. He later posted a review of the movie on his personal website blog (www.mnasheed.com) calling the scene “titillating, but ultimately unsatisfying”.
J-Sat General Manager, Ibrahim Nasheed, tried to play down the incident and said that the scene “wasn’t in a sexual context… [and] we have not received any complaints from customers regarding the size of the breasts shown and the duration.” He also later added: “Maldivians generally do not watch this channel! The audience is generally Italian, French and Spanish workers in the Maldives. But now most Maldivians who subscribe with us have vowed to make it a point of watching the channel all through the night. And new subscribers are applying every day.”
Mohamed Arif, Assistant Director in the Information Ministry, said the Ministry has received “four or five complaints from Maldivians… of pornography being shown after midnight.” But the J-Sat General Manager disputed the claim and said that the Ministry had distorted the facts and in fact the real quote was: “four or five complaints from Maldivians, of pornography being shown after midnight while they had been sleeping and so having missed it!”
Meanwhile, the amount of people subscribing to J-Sat cable has doubled.
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Rai channel sux big time. They show more porn on the Indian channels like Star Plus such as the penis of the Hindu god Shiva on lousy tele-dramas like 'Kasoooooteeeee' - Really turns me on. That big black thing ... Oh.. Oh.. Ohhhh..... Info Ministry, please do not ban this channel.
ReplyDeleteI've not seen Rai channel ever.. but now I am going to ehave to !
ReplyDeleteSo that's the channell i've been missing eh? J-Sat, here I comeeee!
ReplyDeleteHmmm...if some people think depictions of topless women is porn, I wonder what they'd think of real porn. Wouldn't expect them to know... take this particular case into consideration. The ministry claims it received 4 or 5 complaints from the public. Unlike its French counterpart TV5, RAI does not subtitle their movies in English, so I am wondering why on earth these complainers were watching it in the first place? And that is at 1 o'clock in the middle of the night.
ReplyDeletesweet cheeks: LOL : D
ReplyDeletei suppose if haabees owned tvs there'll be more complaints than 4!
ahmed sattelite was reporting while doing it???? EWWWWWW! We dont wanna know ahmed! Please get a room!
ReplyDelete(Good one bakhabaru! hehe)
fali: He was in a room while reporting it while doing it.
ReplyDelete