Pigs' faces censored in International New York Times news story
Identity of swine shrouded in secrecy
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The blacking out of a herd of pigs in the Malaysian edition of the New York Times caused some confusion among international readers this week.
You could be mistaken for thinking that their faces were obscured out of respect for the pigs' privacy, that they were young swine and therefore entitled to anonymity, or even that they had been granted a super-injunction at some kind of porcine high court.
The real reason is much simpler (and less idiotic) however: pictures of pigs are not allowed in the Muslim country.
As representative for the newspaper's printing company Shah Alam told the Malay Mail Online: "We’ve been doing this for some time. We block out pictures of nudes and things like these. This is a Muslim country."
Although secular and multi-religious, around two thirds of Malaysia's population is Muslim.
Alam added that the printing firm censored the images, which ran alongside a front page story, of its own volition and was not instructed to do so by the authorities.
In other curious New York Times front page news-related news (yes, there's more), it emerged recently that the publication had an error on its cover every day for over 100 years.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments