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EXCLUSIVE: Members of a House select committee on China met with Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger and later with a group of Hollywood filmmakers and executives on Wednesday, amid concerns over industry business practices in engaging with Beijing.

The committees chairman, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), was joined by nine other members, including its ranking member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

According to a source close to the committee, the hourlong meeting was constructive and it was candid.

Gallagher expressed concerns around censorship, and Iger spoke about the relationship with the Chinese Communist party and how it has changed, among other topics, the source said.

Iger was joined by other Disney executives, and they spoke about how their goal is not to change the stories, the source said, adding that the executives conveyed how they tried to walk the line between cultural and political requests from Chinese censors. They admitted it was a value judgment and dont always get it right, the source said, with the point made that sometimes the studio complies and sometimes it does not.

The private meeting was set up with Iger as lawmakers of both parties focus on Chinas influence over American business and culture. Hollywood has been a target of members on Capitol Hill in recent years over some high-profile examples in which movies were edited, or their storylines changed, to appease Chinese censors.

In 2020, Gallagher was among the lawmakers who previously sent a letter to then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek over Mulan and concerns over Disneys work with authorities in the Xinjiang, the region where Uyghur Muslims have held in detention camps. The U.S. has said the Chinese government has committed genocide against the ethnic population.

Gallagher raised the issue again at the meeting, the source said, and Iger talked of how measures have been put in place to make sure such a situation doesnt happen again. Also discussed were the kinds of requests that the studio gets from Chinese film authorities.

Gallagher has said that he wanted Iger to testify on Capitol Hill at some point, but it is unclear whether that is still a possibility.

Disneys global policy in countries where it operates is that we seek to share our stories in their original form as we and the artists involved have created them. If we make edits because of legal or other considerations, they will be as narrow as possible. We will not make an edit where we believe it would impact the storytelling. In that circumstance, we will not distribute the content in that market.

Disney has a large footprint in China beyond movie releases, including Shanghai Disneyland, which opened in 2016. The park is majority owned by Shanghai Shendi Group, with Disney having a 43% stake, according to corporate documents.

Other members at the meeting included Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA).

Later on Wednesday, five members of the House committee and 17 industry representatives met at Cecconis in West Hollywood for an off-the-record session in which Hollywood figures shared experiences of doing business in China. The group included filmmakers, executives and producers, as well as representatives from academia and industry associations, but the names of the attendees were not disclosed to allow for a more frank discussion.

Producer Chris Fenton, who has been serving as an unpaid adviser to the committee, said that the meeting touched on Chinas film quotas, revenue sharing, tech swaps forced edits, pre-meditated censorship and things that go beyond the China border.

Fenton said that the goal was to make sure it was as wide a perspective on the situation as possible, and to make sure that the members got as full an education and an idea of the nuances and the pressures on everybody with respect to China.

He added, Overall, the idea was, How do we unite on pushing back on things that have gotten out of control?

In a recent op ed, Fenton wrote that the industry, at the center of culture and commerce, should work with lawmakers so our community can help keep those two vital bars of connection while helping to design policies and regulations we can live with as an industry.

Without a healthy collaboration with Washington, I fear Hollywood will attempt to continue the status quo as China continues to impose its massive market leverage, forcing widespread industry compliance even as its domestic movie industry continues to rise, displacing American movies in theaters and smartphones, he wrote.

The House group also was planning meetings with Silicon Valley executives on Thursday, and was scheduled to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday.

The committee named the Select Committee On the Chinese Communist Party held its first meeting in February, and was unusual for the bipartisan focus on concerns over Chinas influence.

In an appearance on Face the Nation in February, Gallagher told 60 Minutes, I think we can have a productive conversation with companies that have substantial business interests inChina, and we want to make sure that the power of the Chinese economy is not seducing certain companies into betraying American values.

Lawmakers have criticized studios for self-censorship in the way that movies are edited as a way to gain entry into China. One incident that created an uproar was when the trailerforTop Gun: Maverickshowed Tom Cruises character wearing a bomber jacket with two of the flag patches, for Taiwan and Japan, replaced with other symbols. The flags were restored when the film was finally released last year, albeit not in China. When he was attorney general, William Barr cited reports that in the case of Marvel StudiosDoctor Strange, filmmakers changed the nationality of a major character from a Tibetan monk to Celtic.

Continued here:
Lawmakers Meet With Bob Iger, Hollywood Creatives To Express Concerns Over Censorship And Beijings Influence - Deadline

Security agencies are on high alert as Takht Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo gears up for a first-of-its-kind gathering of journalists called by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh on Friday to discuss what he calls media censorship and fake news in Punjab.

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This comes after the recent crackdown on the organisation Waris Punjab De on March 18, which has resulted in allegations of censorship on some media outlets and journalists in the state.

The Jathedar had called the gathering shortly after Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, who is on the run since March 18, urged him in a video message to call a Sarbat Khalsa on the occasion of Baisakhi on April 14.

Sukhdev Singh Phagwara of the Alliance of Sikh Organisations (ASO), which is closely assisting Akal Takht Jathedar in hosting this gathering, said many journalists have reported raids on their houses and confiscation of their electronic devices. Freelance journalists have been particularly affected by the crackdown, he claimed.

The gathering will also address the issue of fake news and hate speech in the region. The SGPC has alleged that many Sikh practices have been misrepresented in the national media, leading to misunderstandings and tensions between communities. The journalists gathering is expected to provide a platform to discuss how to tackle these issues and ensure responsible reporting in future.

Although police officials are tightlipped, sources said that Amritpal can use any historic gurudwara, especially one of the three Takhts in Punjab, to surrender.

Punjab Police recently arrested Punjabi Radio host Sukhnaib Sidhu under serious non-bailable Sections for posting a video that was critical of a man who allegedly gave a call to protest against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwnat Manns family. Sukhnaib was released the next day; no charges were pressed against him.

Sukhdev Singh said: Censorship of the media was not limited to the Waris Punjab De crackdown. It was widespread, and many journalists had submitted a memorandum to Akal Takht Sahib after their houses were raided by police, and their pages, channels, and social media accounts were blocked. Freelance journalists were the most affected. This is why Akal Takht Jathedar decided to convene a gathering of journalists and discuss this extraordinary situation not only to address the current challenges but also to develop a plan on how to react to such attacks on the media in future.

He said, Although most journalists who have faced restrictions and police heat come from the Sikh community, I also know a Hindu journalist called to a police station over a news item. So this gathering is not limited to Sikh journalists. It is an open invitation to all journalists who want to protect Punjab from false propaganda of respective governments. We are hoping for a constructive outcome out of this gathering for healthy journalism in Punjab.

Recently, the Editors Guild of India had released a statement and expressed deep concern about arbitrary suspension of social media accounts of several journalists and media organisations in Punjab.

The Indian Express (P) Ltd

First published on: 07-04-2023 at 01:52 IST

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Akal Takht Jathedar to host gathering on media censorship today, agencies on alert - The Indian Express

The New York Times recently reportedabout a horrific situation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when COVID-19 first appeared. No, it wasnt about whether a bat or a pangolin or an experiment gone wrong had set off an epidemic. It was far worse.

In the midst of an extremely dangerous worldwide pandemic, young scientists were being censored, threatened and bullied by the CDCs leadership and others holding high political office in the Trump administration, the paper reported. They were told to stop sharing their frank opinions on social media about what was going on as a lethal coronavirus began to spread around the world.

Incredibly, instead of indignation at the censorship of our scientists, this nation is consumed by an irresolvable, politically driven dispute over the origins of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 lab leak or zoonotic spillover? That debate is all but pointless. The requisite evidence is not available, and the answer to the question is more or less irrelevant. Both origin scenarios are plausible and thus require worldwide policy attention.

What should be commanding this nations attention, eliciting congressional hearings, independent investigations by high-level commissions and sustained outrage on the part of every American is the utter failure of the CDC to respond rapidly, truthfully and transparently to a global infectious-disease outbreak that ultimately killed nearly 7 million people worldwide, including over a million in the U.S. No one can argue we are in any way prepared for future outbreaks without fully understanding what happened early on during COVID when politics crushed the voice of the CDC. We need to know to ensure it cannot happen again.

Key Words (February 2020): The coronavirus disease from Wuhan, China, now has a name: COVID-19

The Times reporting focuses on the agonizing experience of a group of young scientists who worked for the CDCs Epidemic Intelligence Services. The scientists were heartbroken, the Times reports, to realize that the CDC had effectively acknowledged to its own staff that it had evidence that the new coronavirus was being spread by people without symptoms. But it had not told the public. At one point, the scientists basically snuck away from their desks under fear of reprisals to discuss what was going on. All of us knew tens of thousands were going to die, and we were helpless to stop it, said Daniel Wozniczka, one of the scientists, according to the Times.

Why couldnt those scientists warn the public? The CDC was under intense pressure from the countrys political leaders not to tell the truth. Trump administration officials were not allowing the worlds leading public health authority to say what it believed.

The details of what happened behind the scenes at the Epidemic Intelligence Service are new, but the political throttling of the CDC played out in plain sight at the time. In February 2020, Nancy Messonnier, a senior CDC official, warned that the virus was likely to spread and to severely disrupt daily life. The stock market plunged, and she abruptly disappeared from public view. Vice President Mike Pence was placed in charge of the governments response to the pandemic declared on March 11 of that year.

From the archives (February 2020): CDC: How Americans should prepare for school and workplace closures due to coronavirus outbreak

Also see (February 2020): Heres why the U.S. governments effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak was never going to be successful

Isnt this demonstrable decision to politicize, censor and ultimately conceal the dangers of COVID as unacceptable as anything the Chinese government may have done to obscure its origins and silence whistleblowers?

Dont we need legislation to immunize the CDC and other health agencies against political interference? Should whistle-blower protections be strengthened so concerned younger and vulnerable experts can speak freely? Doesnt the media need to recommit to give stronger voice to dissenters and the censored when they try to sound an alarm during a plague? And shouldnt professional societies and journals find safe forums to help those who feel the weight of political meddling get their voices heard even if anonymously?

Many in Congress prefer to bemoan censorship in China. But we continue to let our politicians call the shots and set the boundaries of fact about public health crises. No meaningful reforms have been instituted to protect against future infectious-disease tragedies in which Americans unnecessarily die in droves. The focus in Congress in many state legislatures and many scientific forums is solely on what China knew and when did that country know it.

The primary focus of American inquiries ought to be when did American scientists believe they knew important information about COVID, who prevented them from sharing their opinions and how do we ensure that form of censorship never happens again?It hardly matters what the origins of the novel coronavirus were and how it spread if our own scientists and public health officials were not permitted by our government to talk freely.

Arthur L. Caplanis the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty professor of bioethics and the founding head of New York University School of Medicines Division of Medical Ethics.

Read on (December 2020): WHO says coronavirus pandemic is not the big one the world needs to brace for

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Americans angry at China over the lab leak theory should be furious at the CDC. - MarketWatch

Photography by Chiara Negrello. Image courtesy ofThe New York Times.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simonis statue of David has come to represent theideal of Renaissance artthe sculpted figure stands confident and poised for action. Centuries after thestatue's completion in 1504, historians and students still study the artists steady hand and vivid work, imbuing a new generation with an admiration for the bygone master. That is unless you live in Florida, where presenting an image of thenudebody in a classroom is grounds for forced resignation and a nation-widescandal.

Principal Hope Carrasquilla was ousted from the charter Tallahassee Classical School last month after a photo ofDavidwas shown during a sixth-grade art history lesson without sufficient notice to parents, some of whom found the statue to be pornographic.Accordingto school board chair Barney Bishop, these families enrolled their kids in the charter school because of its ability to counteract woke indoctrination.

News spread quickly across the Internet. Carrasquilla received a personal invite to visit the sculpture at Florences Galleria dellAccademia, and David himself made an appearance on SNL to defend his nudity. On the shows recurring Weekend Update segment, cast member Michael Longfellow appeared in makeup and not much else to declare, Im proud of my tiny, shiny penis and my stone pubes. I got nothing to hide.

Parents determination to prevent wokeness from entering their childrens schools may be a contemporaryphenomenon, but outrage over Davids exposed genitalia is not. Attempts at forcing him to cover up date back to his inception.

When David first debuted in 1504 outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall of Florence, Italy, he was given a gilded loin covering comprised of well-placed fig leaves. Leonardo Da Vinci suggested the alteration, likely as a dig at his rival, Michelangelo, after the artists' relationship wasreduced to bitter spats in the streets. The attachmentwaslater removed, only to be replaced with a single leaf in the mid-16th century when the Vatican cracked down on nudity and launched the fig leaf campaign, an effort to cover up prominent artworks, and later castrate others.

Similarly, in 1857, a replica of David was delivered to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, commissioned by the Grand Duke as a gift to the queen. Upon first sight, she was allegedly so shocked by his nudity that a fig leaf covering was immediately put together to mend the situation. The leaf was kept at the museum in anticipation of any royal visits, when it would be hung from hooks to allow David some modesty. A version of the leaf remains in the V&A collection today, just in case.

The Simpsons, in a characteristically prescient manner, offered its own take on Davids bare form in 1990 with the episode Itchy & Scratchy & Marge. Concerned about her childrens viewing habits, Marge forms a protest group to rally against a violent television show, only to unwittingly create an angry mob that turns against David, who is visiting Springfield as part of a traveling exhibition. Marge stands up to defend Michelangelos marble man, and learns a touching lessonabout picking and choosing what art deserves to be seen.

David made his way back onto TV screens in 2012 when China Central Television began promoting a new exhibition at the National Museum of China, Renaissance in Florence: Masterpieces and the Protagonists. The statue was broadcast with the crotch pixelated, causing immediate chaos on social media. Users poked fun at the seemingly arbitrary blurring, declaring that the real David has a penis. Later broadcasts bared all.

Just recently, Davidwas reproduced using 3D printers atDubai's Expo 2020 and was widely advertised as a major attraction. However, when visitors arrived, they found the giant manstuck in an octagonal shaft with only his head and shoulders visible to passersby. A reporter at La Repubblica compared the encasing to a beheading, and guests felt justifiably ripped off. To catch a glimpse of his body, some craning over the gilded ledge would be required.

Over 500 years after his creation, the question remains: why is Davids small package such a big deal?

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Michelangelo's 'David' Has a Long History of Censorship - Cultured Magazine

Algeria is under the watchful eye of the international community. The decisions that Abdelmajdid Tebboune's government has been taking in recent months are causing criticism from various organisations that are concerned about attacks on civil rights in Algeria. The fact that "activists, journalists and lawyers have been prosecuted for their peaceful activism, their opinions or their professions", according to Human Rights Watch, which in January put the number of people imprisoned for participating in peaceful demonstrations at 250, is worrying, and the fact is that the latest decisions by Algiers follow a line that the international community does not like at all.

The new draft law that Abdelmajdid Tebboune's government is preparing, which it hopes to present at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers, brings with it important restrictions that have come as a surprise to a large part of society. It aims to "protect the sanctity, symbols, and national, spiritual and official values" in the cinema sector. Therefore, all new productions in Algeria must respect these symbols and not contravene official institutions and figures, something that has caused intense unease among film directors.

The reprisals that the executive will take if these restrictions are not respected are really harsh. They will include heavy fines and even prison sentences, which has ended up worrying industry professionals. The Algerian director and member of the Oscar Academy, Malek Ben Ismail, described the new measure as "shocking" and criticised "the ambiguous nature", and the "attack on freedom and even punitive nature of some of the provisions of the text, which foresees a prison sentence of up to three years" for those who direct this type of film.

This draft law is controversial, as some consider that the viewer is being sidelined and that a model of censorship is being imposed that harms the country's external vision. The Algerian director himself considers that the new measure should have been preceded by "political thinking about what could happen to Algerian cinema and put the spectator at the centre of the issue". However, the aim of the initiative is none other than to continue to control the official version and prevent the production of works that criticise the country's political and administrative establishments, as was previously done with Chadli Bendjedid as Algerian president.

If the situation in Algeria was already complicated before the bill was announced, it is even more so now. Tebboune's government is ignoring the advice - and warnings - issued by the international community. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns that "the legislative framework is increasingly restrictive". These statements, made before knowing the intentions of the Executive regarding cinema, make them even more serious. In fact, they state that "although article 54 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, it also regulates the dissemination of information and opinions", which is why the situation on Algerian territory is increasingly worrying.

This is largely because the crisis in Algeria, both within and outside its borders, is growing. While instability is growing in Abdelmajdid Tebboune's country, the foreign policy crisis with its Moroccan neighbour and its French partner is no less serious. Algeria has opted to move closer to allies such as China and Russia in the face of a widening rift with Paris. This has not stopped the Algerian president from calling on France to 'protect itself from Morocco'. Although the publication of the recent interview with the former French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, and his statements on Algeria's 'envy' of the Alawite kingdom, reveal much of the real motive behind Tebboune's words towards Emmanuel Macron.

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Algeria will censor films critical of official institutions and figures - Atalayar