| Seattle
Post May 6, 2004 SINGAPORE SINGAPORE censors banned three documentaries from the city-state's annual film festival this year because they portrayed explicit sex and advocated violence, officials said. India's "Final Solution" and "Destiny's Children" and Sweden's "Desperately Seeking Seka" were banned by officials from the Singapore International Film Festival, which ended Sunday, May 2 2004. Festival organizer Philip Cheah said it was the highest number of films banned at the festival in the last three years. Censors in this tightly controlled Southeast Asian country of 4 million people routinely say their decisions are based on the need to maintain ethnic and religious harmony. Singapore has a majority of ethnic Chinese - mostly Buddhist, Taoist or Christian - and minorities of Muslim Malays and ethnic Indians of various faiths, including Hinduism. "The more censorship we have, the less we understand each other, and the more intolerant we'll be," Cheah said Wednesday. "The world is intolerant enough." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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