Alexandrian Nights

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Stupid Censorship

A few days ago I was watching a movie that I can't remember it's name now on Super Movies Channel which is one of Orbit Network Channels ,I was not merely focused on the movie since I have seen it before and was reading some newspapers and sometimes giving a few glances to the TV ,I thought that there's something wrong with this copy of the movie since there were some scenes missing ,I told myself that this can not be ,Orbit Network doesn't have a censorship system and has only age rating advisory system similar to the ones in USA ,UK and other countries ,the age advisory system simply alerts you prior to launching the movie about the minimum recommended viewer's age ,but it's your final decision anyway and the movies shown is simply uncut ,I told myself that I may be imagining this since I was dividing my attention between the TV and the Newspapers and that may the reason for thinking so.

Yesterday I was meeting some friends on some Cafe' ,we were chatting in different topics when suddenly one of friends asked me(Did you watch the Super Movies Channel recently?) ,I said (Yes I did ,why?) ,he told me about several movies he saw during the current and past week which were fully censored and some main scenes missing! ,pfcourse this can be a mistake if it happened with one or two movies but since me ,my friend & others have already seen it then it cannot be denied ,Super Movies channel is censoring the movies it's showing ,that's a very sad thing for movie lovers cause Orbit Network along with Showtime Network were the only sources for uncensored TV entertainment in the middle east region.

When I am talking about (Uncensored Entertainment) I am not talking about porn movies for example ,I am talking about our rights as subscribers ,viewers...Etc to make our own decisions about the entertainment's materials we are viewing ,if a certain viewer finds that the shown material is not suitable for his/her own sense,ideology ,taste...Etc then it's the viewers own decision to shut off this material and move to any other thing he sees suitable ,and censorship is a very big issue in our RETARDED Arab countries that were brought to discussion countless times during the years ,why out governments simply treat us a Civilized & Respectful adults and let us decide what we want to see instead of deciding for us? ,isn't it enough for those governments to decide for us in every aspect of life and treating us like some mindless rocks?

As I said I am an Adult who like to watch movies from everywhere on the earth and knowing all the possible cultural waves out there ,I don't see any reason for this behavior from Orbit network ,what's frustrating more is that the network didn't announce something like that before applying it(the same behavior found in the Arab governmental systems where their citizen are the last people on earth to know about their intentions ,decisions & moves!) ,maybe because it knows that it may lose a big portion of current subscribers due to this stupidity ,I really thought about canceling my family's subscription with them because of that but on the other hand it seems that I can't stop watching the great (Amr Adeeb) on his addictive TV show (Alkahera AlYoum) airing on Alyoum Channel ,but I am thinking about sending some kind of protest emails to the Network and letting them know about their stupid decision ,if there's any other one who noticed the same thing please post it in your comments.

10 Comments:

  • At 9:35 AM, Blogger Alexandra said…

    I dont subscribe to Orbit because knowing it was Saudi financed only ment that it is or will be censored soon. The reality of the matter is all networks are censored in one why or the other. Not outright censorship of course but the ownership and finance of it always indicates the type of choice or ommisions that are finally to be made. I prefer showtime only because on thier movie channels including Al Shasha I sometimes catch some films from outside Hollywood and the mainstream.

     
  • At 10:54 PM, Blogger SaudiEve said…

    same thing happened to me...
    i was shocked and angered .. i also thought of cancelling my subscribtion .. but to what alternative?

    anyway, i noticed that it all started when Orbit decided to focus its services to fit the non-English-speaking viwer ... hmmm! did they decide not to only transilate into arabic but to also censor the movies ? ...or are they getting their movies from a source that provides only censored movies (i think only the transilated movies are censored on orbit!)

     
  • At 2:38 AM, Blogger Solo said…

    knowing it was saudi financed only ment that it's or will be censored soon ... that's the point alexandra so don't waste ur time nightlegend by sendin mails
    u know the 1st time i noticed that orbit is financed by saudi leaders when king fahd went to the other side ... they stop showing movies ... only quran

     
  • At 2:57 AM, Blogger LouLou said…

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

     
  • At 3:09 AM, Blogger LouLou said…

    I think it's a bit unfair to blame it on Saudis alone. Censorship is a fact of life in this part of the world because of the culture. Those of us who don't want it are actually in the minority.

    I became convinced of this when I complained to a friend of mine who works in a local Satellite channel about movies suddenly being censored to the point where you can't understand the plot in some parts. What my friend did was show me the amount of letters & emails they get from conservative people complaining about the uncensored movies. More than that people go & write editorials in newspapers complaining against the station & what it shows. They go & send mails to religious ministries & ministries of information about what the station is showing. Basically the station started censoring because it was getting a lot of pressure from a lot of quarters who were getting pressure from the public. Don't forget that conservative or religious people are always the ones who have the loudest voices in our culture.I mean we actually have Arab parliaments in Jordan & Egypt discussing videos by Nancy or Ruby. You have people rioting in the streets over a play or a book.

    We even have people of Arab or Muslim background who live in free countries like Denmark that don't have censorship & they are going out & demonstrating & asking for censorship because they didn't like something that was printed or shown on TV. So we don't just want to censor in our part of the world. We're actually trying to censor the whole world!

    LBC is also Saudi-financed & it was one of the first Arabic channels to break social & cultural taboos. The reason for this is that private businessmen care about pleasing the public & getting advertising & other sorts of profit more than anything else. That goes for Saudi businessmen too.

    Censorship will end when the general public here learns to just change the channel or unsubscribe when they see something they don't like - instead of trying to prevent others from seeing it too.

     
  • At 4:01 AM, Blogger Just Jane said…

    Even in the US there is some censorship on television. Network television is not allowed to show nudity or certain profanity (curse words). If a network breaks one of these rules there is a large monetary fine. However there is a lot of graphic violence allowed. It's strange to me that a naked human body or two lovers in embrace is considered "unfit" for television yet showing people shot, stabbed, blown up, or killed is tolerated.

     
  • At 8:36 AM, Blogger Colleen said…

    When I first came here to Egypt, I really didn't notice it (only because I didn't have satillite yet). When I got it and was watching a movie I already seen, I knew that certain parts were going to be cut out. It is typical in the US so I was prepared.

    Surprisingly, it wasn't the volient ones or the cursing ones being taken out, but the make out ones. Even "Friends" when anyone kisses, they take that part out. WHAT THE HECK??? And they use curse words on 'One TV (Sopranoes for example).

    I am pretty annoyed by it and think it is idiotic that they can show swearing and someone being killed, but a little kissing (even just one kiss) and it gets cut.

    My opinion: They shouldn't censor anything. We should have free will to watch whatever we want and I don't want anyone making that decision for me. And if you don't like what is on TV, TURN THE CHANNEL!!

     
  • At 8:39 AM, Blogger Nightlegend said…

    I would like first to apologize about the delay in responding to your comments due to temPorary DSL service interruption ,here we go:

    alexandra:you are right but there's alot of liberal Saudi business men outthere that won't always planin the same way.

    saudieve:I talked to their customer service before about this issue of movies being not translated ,they said that sometimes there will be problems with the translation airing service or something like that but it's temporary ,and the censored movies I have seen were aired there before uncensored.

    solo:you are right about your notice ,but I remember theu only stopped airing arabic materials not foreign ones!

    loulou:very good points mentioned ,but why we are minority? why don't other people demand their right of freedom? ,believe me we live in schezophrenic socities ,what they refuse in public will do in private ,I am sorry to say that but alot of those religous called people are watching porn movies either in private or with their wives ,what maddening me the most is the network's inability ofresepcting their viewers ,couldn't they treat them as civilized human beings and inform them about such changes?

    jane:I think that the sexual content has a different nature than the violent ones ,your comment reminded me of a post I read by some mother on IMDB forums commenting on a new war movie called(Jarhead) ,the concerned mother were asking any one who saw the movie to tell here the details of the movie's sexual content(the movie were rated R for violence & sexual content) because her 15 years old want to go watchthis movie cause he likes watching warmovies and she were worried about him watching the sexual content in the movie ,a reply came from some other member on the board saying with astonished tone(you are concerned about your son watching 5 seconds of non graphic sexual content and NOT worried about him watching all the violence & blood in the same movie!!)


    layla:the (one) channel is actually a very retarded channel whenit comes to censorship ,this channel is not doing censorship in the common way ,it's simply slaughtering the entertainment contents completely !

     
  • At 9:23 PM, Blogger Just Jane said…

    Quite frankly I would be less worried about my kids seeing a naked human body or two people making love than having them watch violence. Studies show that movies and tv has an effect on the behavior of children...if that's true I'd rather have them grow up to be comfortable with their nude bodies and their sexuality than to be desensitized to violence.

     
  • At 2:44 AM, Blogger Solo said…

    you are right,only arabic channels were airing Quran , anyway both arabic and foriegn channels are in the same network (orbit)so have the same saudi finance and that's the point

     

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