Mediacorp fined over blackface in drama

[SINGAPORE] Singapore's national broadcaster was fined for airing racist content over an internet drama episode that featured a Chinese actor with black face make-up, the media regulator said Thursday.

Mediacorp was fined S$5,500 by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) over the segment in its Chinese language web-only series "I Want To Be A Star", about bit part actors in the entertainment industry, which caused outrage online.

"IMDA assessed that the segment was racially insensitive and constituted racial stereotyping that might offend certain segments of the community," the regulator said, noting that the broadcaster had been swift to remove the offending content and had "taken remedial action to prevent a recurrence".

Mediacorp did not immediately comment on the issue.

While the show itself did not attract huge interest, news of the apparently discriminatory episode touched a nerve over stereotyping in the mainly ethnic Chinese city and caused a storm of online criticism.

AFP