Netflix has removed Australian spy drama “Pine Gap” from its Vietnam service after broadcast authorities complained a map shown in the program violates the country’s sovereignty.
The offending map, which depicts China’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea, appears on a screen in a spy base control base in two separate episodes.
The “nine-dash line” features on Chinese maps and represents the country’s territorial claims over 90 per cent of the 3.5 million square kilometres of the resource-rich South China Sea. These claims have no basis in international law.
“Netflix’s violations angered and hurt the feelings of the entire people of Vietnam,” the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information said in a statement on its website.
“This is the third time in a row in the last 12 months that Netflix has been found to distribute movies and TV shows containing content which violate Vietnam’s sovereignty.”
Netflix has since removed the show in Vietnam, but it remains available in the rest of the world.
“Following a written legal demand from the Vietnamese regulator, we have removed the licensed series, Pine Gap, from Netflix in Vietnam, to comply with local law,” a Netflix spokesperson said.
A 2019 Chinese film ‘Put Your Head On My Shoulder’ and US political TV show ‘Madam Secretary’ were the other Netflix programs referenced above.
