CCTV News Censors Michelangelo’s David-Apollo, Then Uncensors

From NetEase:

CCTV censors nude sculpture in broadcast, uncensored 4 hours later

Yesterday, CCTV news channel report titled “Beijing’s National Museum 100th Anniversary: Exhibition of Famous Renaissance Artists and Works of Art” caused an uproar over “mosaics” [censorship].

July 9th is the 100th anniversary of China’s National Museum and the National Museum unveiled an exhibition of famous Italian Renaissance Artists and Works of Art. Yesterday noon at 11:49am, during a CCTV news broadcast, a censoring mosaic was placed over the reproductive organs of the famous David-Apollo sculpture by Michelangelo [seen at 0:50 and 2:03 in the below video.].

This act by CCTV immediately created a controversy amongst netizens. Netizen “自然茧破茧而出” felt, “Since this piece of news is specifically about works of art, how can it be so disrespectful towards artwork? Just who is covering up whose ugliness?” while netizen “mtmk”’s point of view was exactly the opposite, “The mainstream aesthetic of ancient Greece culture and the Renaissance was the beauty of the body, but this is not China’s aesthetic. I think it is inappropriate to publicly broadcast the full sculpture of David on a public television channel.

With regards to CCTV’s act of adding a mosaic, a producer for a Nanjing television program expressed understanding, “One of the basic reasons for the news adding mosaics [blurring or pixelating censorship of images/video] is because they feel the content would affect the visuals, would hurt public morals, or would have a serious negative effect upon audiences. The CCTV director probably believed the naked David would cause a negative effect on some audiences.”

Facing overwhelming opposition and condemnation online, CCTV made a change for the news broadcast over 3 hours later. Yesterday at 3:54pm, during the rebroadcast of this piece of news, the mosaic that was on David-Apollo had been removed [seen at 0:59 and 2:12 in the below video.].

At time of submission, CCTV has not offered any explanation for the removal of the censorship during the news rebroadcast.

Comments on NetEase:

ozn999 [网易广东省云浮市手机网友]：

If the standard for adding mosaics [censorship] is this, I think a mosaic should be added to the first 25 minutes of Xinwen Lianbo! Those who support me will all emigrate to America!

kevingmao [网易英国网友]：

Just who is covering up whose shame???

麻花疼的大爷 [网易广东省深圳市网友]：

Suggestion: Have a mosaic to added to all 24 hours of CCTV broadcasting.

我真是马甲19 [网易广西河池市网友]：

Even the Chinese stone lions in front of the Palace Museum [Forbidden City, former imperial palace] have their JJ visible. Go have them smashed.

伊藤开司 [网易法国网友]：

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! If you didn’t blur it out, it would be human body art. If you blur it out, then it becomes pornographic.

刘大宝子 [网易黑龙江省哈尔滨市网友]：

As a 7-year-old child’s father, I support what CCTV did.
Even if it is some famous person’s nude sculpture, isn’t it still a nude sculpture?
There are too many pornographic things in the media these days, which has already seriously affected the environment that children grow up in.
(Those who like the lewd and obscene, please don’t impose your ideology on others, much less children, please be dignified.)

ray910510 [网易新加坡网友]： (responding to above)

The total amount of artistic education that our countrymen receive on average throughout their lives averages just 52.5 days. So no wonder there are so many people like the person above who can’t tell the difference between art and the obscene.

杨永信的七三一 [网易美国网友]： (also responding to 刘大宝子)

Typical uneducated person lecturing the educated, Michelangelo’s David is a legendary figure.
You might as well tell your child not to go to school, because the teaching materials in high school fine arts classes have a fully nude David in them.

网易山东省潍坊市网友： (also responding to 刘大宝子)

Stupid cunt, even things that are in history textbooks can be come pornography? How come mosaics aren’t added to them in history textbooks? Total idiotic nonsense.

围1观1独1裁1和1猪1仔 [网易山东省济宁市网友]： (also responding to 刘大宝子)

Since you’ve been pretentious for this long, please continue being pretentious. A one person xiangsheng television channel, go fuck yourself.