Television company fined for making gays look ‘normal’
Singapore’s City State Regulator has fined a television station £5000 for featuring a gay couple in way that makes them look ‘normal.’
The Media Development Authority fined MediaCorp TV for featuring the couple with their adoptive son, claiming that it “promoted a gay lifestyle.”
Homosexual sex is illegal in Singapore, however, in October 2007, the Singapore government declared that private, consensual, adult homosexual sex would no longer be prosecuted but that its illegality would remain.
The authority said the episode contained scenes of the gay couple with their baby and the presenter’s congratulations and acknowledgment of them as a family unit “in a way which normalizes their gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup.”
The hit show, Find and Design, helps couples renovate a part of their home. In this particular episode the couple wanted to makeover their child’s bedroom.
Earlier in the year a cable television station were fined £3500 for showing a commercial where two women kissed.
In its Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index , Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 147 out of 167.
Most of the local media are directly or indirectly controlled by the government and are often perceived as pro-government.
Prior to 2003, homosexuals were barred from being employed in “sensitive positions” within the Singapore Civil Service.
Former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong demolished this barrier in a widely publicised statement.
