Hong Kong’s Now TV has been “seriously warned” by a government regulator over its broadcast of a violent pornographic film depicting rape on one of its paid adult channels.
Thursday’s warning from the Communications Authority came after a member of the public lodged a complaint against the broadcaster, alleging that the content of the film was “overly violent, unnerving and pornographic and would invite imitation.”
The Japanese film had been shown in March on Now TV’s Channel Adult – one of three paid adult-only channels hosted by the local broadcaster.
The Authority said in a press release that the film in question portrayed a female character being threatened and forced to engage in sex by an assailant.
“There were detailed depictions of the raping acts and the assailant was portrayed as getting great pleasure from his sexual assault on the female character,” it added.
The regulator said that the film violated a number of provisions in the TV Programme Code relating to the depiction of violence, sexual violence, obscenity and hardcore material.
“While noting that the programme under complaint was restricted to adults, the [Authority] considered that the depictions of violence therein were presented in a realistic and impactful manner which was not justified by the context; and that there were portrayals of sustained and excessively detailed acts of violence.”
The Authority said that it seriously warned Now TV to follow the TV Programme Code more closely, taking into account that its last infraction of a similar nature occurred 11 years ago.
“We apologise that the program has offended viewers,” a Now TV spokesperson told HKFP. “We have taken action to seek more stringent censorship from adult channel providers and have also stepped up our internal review process to ensure adherence to the program code.”
