Netflix removes 2 ‘Pine Gap’ episodes over South China Sea map

Screenshot by Laureen Mondonedo-Ynot
Screenshot by Laureen Mondonedo-Ynot

NETFLIX Inc. removed Monday, November 1, two episodes of Australian series “Pine Gap” from its streaming service in the Philippines after the Southeast Asian country demanded for their removal over use of a map showing China’s “illegal nine-dash line.”

China has been using the nine-dash line to assert its claim over the disputed South China Sea or West Philippine Sea.

The map shows nine dashes around the South China Sea area, which China claims is part of its territory. Included in the so-called China’s territory is the Spratlys group of islands, which are also being claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

The Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said certain episodes of Pine Gap must be removed for violation of its sovereignty.

As of Tuesday, November 2, the episodes 2 and 3 of Pine Gap are no longer available in the country.

Netflix placed a label saying the episodes were "removed by government demand." The streaming platform did not elaborate.

The DFA said in a statement Monday that the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) acted on its complaint and ruled on September 28, 2021 that the certain episodes of Pine Gap are “unfit for public exhibition.”

The MTRCB also underscored that “under a whole-of-nation approach, every instrumentality of the government, whenever presented with the opportunity, has the responsibility to counter China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea to assert the Philippines’ territorial integrity.”

It further noted that the portrayal of the nine-dash line in the spy drama is no accident, “as it was consciously designed and calculated to specifically convey a message that China’s nine-dash line legitimately exists.”

“Such portrayal is a crafty attempt to perpetuate and memorialize in the conscious of the present generation of viewers and the generations to come the illegal nine-dash line,” MTRCB said.

It added that using the medium of motion picture is “but China’s unconventional approach to gain an upper hand in the territorial conflict in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea.”

In July this year, Pine Gap was also removed by Netflix from its services in Vietnam after receiving the same complaint from the country’s broadcast authorities. (SunStar Philippines)

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph