Beijing, Jan 27 (DPA) China's ruling Communist
Party has banned images and mention of pigs in
television advertisements aired over the lunar
new year to avoid offending the country's
Muslims, an advertising agency said Friday.
'We were told by the CCTV (China Central
Television) censorship team that the CCTV
advertising department announced a new
regulation on pigs in its internal document,' an
executive at the Shanghai-based Mindshare agency
told DPA.
The ban also applies to cartoons and traditional
paper-cut images of pigs, and to slogans such as
'golden pig brings you fortune' and 'wish you a
happy pig year,' the executive said.
He said the decision was taken 'in order to
avoid nationality conflicts' and issued by Li
Changchun, a top party propaganda official and a
member of the party's elite Politburo.
The regulation only applies to advertisements.
CCTV and other state broadcasters normally run
dozens of popular variety shows and other
special programmes before and during the
one-week national holiday to mark the lunar new
year, or Spring Festival.
The Year of the Pig begins on February 18.