{"id":93364,"date":"2011-09-12T10:12:31","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T10:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=6160"},"modified":"2011-09-12T10:12:31","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T10:12:31","slug":"gay-marriage-screened-banned-from-italian-state-tv-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=93364","title":{"rendered":"Gay marriage banned from Italian state TV channel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A German TV show depicting a marriage between two men\u00a0<a title=\"On Top Magazine - Italian Broadcaster RAI Accused Of Censoring Gay Marriage Episode\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ontopmag.com\/article.aspx?id=9448&amp;MediaType=1&amp;Category=24\" target=\"_blank\">is being prevented from being screened<\/a>\u00a0by Italian state broadcaster\u00a0<a title=\"RAI\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rai.it\/dl\/portale\/home.segreto.acqua.html\" target=\"_blank\">Radiotelevisione Italiana\u00a0(RAI)<\/a>.\u00a0 The ARD series \u201cUm Himmels Willen\u201d (literally \u201cFor Heaven\u2019s Sake\u201d) has been shown in Italy since 2004, yet episode 125, entitled \u201cRomeo and Romeo\u201d and due to screen on RAI Uno on Tuesday, will be left out of the 10-part season in order to \u201cavoid controversy\u201d, according to the broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p>Gay marriage being if not universally accepted then at least legal in Germany, the TV show itself concerns the struggle of two men to see their marriage and sexuality accepted by the society around them. Ironically given the normally religious basis of anti-homosexual activity in Italy, this particular episode sees the couple seeking advice from regular \u201cUm Himmels Willen\u201d character, Sister Hanna, a nun.<\/p>\n<p>Anna Paola Concia, Italian parliamentary lobbyist for the opposition Democratic Party and the only openly gay person in her profession, was quick to underline the hypocrisy of RAI\u2019s decision. \u201cRAI have pushed for censorship of reality itself here,\u201d she said \u201cespecially when you consider that there have been several films showing homosexual relationships on TV here.\u201d Concia told\u00a0<em><a title=\"Tagesschau\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tagesschau.de\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tagesschau<\/a><\/em>, the news-channel from the ARD network (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der \u00f6ffentlich-rechtlichen\u00a0Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik\u00a0Deutschland, since you asked), that reactions to her marriage to her wife in the German town of Frankfurt am Main proved that RAI is working on the false assumption that the Italian public will be angered by seeing a gay relationship on TV. \u201cWe received thousands of letters from &#8216;normal&#8217; Italian people; Catholic, non-Catholic, heterosexual, in order to congratulate us and wish us well,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is an enormous gap between the beliefs of the government and the people in this country, and it\u2019s getting wider.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Italy, with its prime minister\u00a0<a title=\"Wikipedia - Silvio Berlusconi\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Silvio_Berlusconi\" target=\"_blank\">Silvio Berlusconi<\/a>\u00a0known for his promotion of traditional values, also recently banned an IKEA advert depicting two men shopping in the store with the strapline \u201cwe are open for all families.\u201d State secretary for families, Carlo Giovanardi, stated in response: \u201cWhile homosexual marriage is legal in maybe three or four countries worldwide, here it remains unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Um Himmels Willen also screens in Hungary, which explicitly banned gay marriage in its new constitution of April 2011.<\/p>\n<p><em><a title=\"Twitter - Ruth Michaelson\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/_Ms_R\" target=\"_blank\">Ruth Michaelson<\/a><\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>is a freelance writer based in Berlin, Germany<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Ruth Michaelson<\/strong>: Gay marriage banned from Italian state TV channel  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[103,7361,7388,1413,14266],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}