The Eurovision Song Contest, the biggest music contest in the world, will air this weekend on channels across the world. It will no end up airing in China, after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) banned Chinese broadcaster Mango TV from blocking LGBT elements of the event.



Mango TV, the online video arm of Hunan TV, blacked out the performance of Ireland’s Ryan O’Shaughnessy, which featured two male dancers and pixelated a rainbow flag during another song. It also separately blurred tattoos from Albanian singer Eugent Bushpepa.



Although homosexuality was decriminalized in China in 1997, there is stilla great deal of discrimination. The censorship also included the censoring of tattoos from the media regulators.



The EBU said:



“On May 9, Chinese broadcaster Mango TV broadcast the first Semi-Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest live but two performances were censored. This is not in line with the EBU’s values of universality and inclusivity and our proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music. It is with regret that we will therefore immediately be terminating our partnership with the broadcaster and they will not be permitted to broadcast the second Semi-Final or the Grand Final.”





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