ABC.com
Thursday, May 17, 2007. 5:38pm (AEST)

A Hong Kong decency watchdog had been flooded with obscenity complaints about the Bible.

The Television and Entertainments Licensing Authority (TELA), which oversees the publishing industry, said it had received 208 complaints that text within the holy book was indecent.

"I can confirm that the complaints were received," said a TELA spokeswoman. "The thrust of the complaints was that the Bible was obscene, that different parts of the Bible were offensive to readers."

TELA refused to divulge details of the complaints, but local media reported that they referred to acts of violence, rape and cannibalism reputedly contained in the Old and New Testaments.

Reports speculated that the sudden flurry of messages sent to TELA was sparked by a Chinese-language website which had exhorted readers to pressure TELA to reclassify the Bible as an indecent publication.

The news comes amid a row in Hong Kong after a sex survey in a student newspaper, which questioned respondents on bestiality and incest, was classified as indecent.

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