In one of the more amusing and intriguing stories of Chinese censorship, it appears state-run China Central Television just couldn't decide whether or not Michelangelo's David was classified as porn, so they decided to pixelate the statue's famous junk. "[E]ditors from China's CCTV decided to blur-out parts of Michelangelo's 'David-Apollo' statue, triggering criticism and a barrage of jokes from hundreds of thousands of internet users," reports The Telegraph's Tom Phillips, adding that CCTV was reporting from an opening of a major Renaissance exhibition at Beijing's National Museum of China. Jokes like "The real David has a penis" and comments like "Without the mosaic [the pixelation], it is art. With the mosaic, it has become porno," floated on China's social media outlets and web portals like Weibo and NetEase, reports Phillips.

The odd thing is, and we're not sure (and may never know) if whoever is in charge of CCTV was moved by the Internet outrage and mocking, that CCTV decided to un-blur David in a subsequent broadcast. "CCTV removed the mosaics when it rebroadcast the program at about 3:54 pm on July 9. As of the morning of July 10, CCTV had not offered any explanation for adding or removing the mosaics," reported China Daily's An Baijie. Bending to free speech would be unusual for the China, considering how seriously the country takes censorship.

While we don't know what moved CCTV to change its mind about the pixelation, the country's Xinhua news agency (by way of Business Insider) reported, "China will launch a renewed campaign to crack down on the distribution of pornographic material, the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said Monday." So, if it you or I were the guy/gal in the editing booth with our finger on the pixelation trigger with stringent Chinese law enforcement looming in the background, we too might err the same way CCTV did.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at aabadsantos at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Alexander Abad-Santos