Pine Gap series promotional image. — Photo from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

HÀ NỘI — The Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications said on July 1 that Netflix on June 30 had removed Pine Gap, a six-part TV series that have images infringing on Việt Nam’s sovereignty over the sea and islands.

The department on June 25 discovered the wrongful representation of Việt Nam’s sovereignty in episodes of the TV series, produced by Australia's ABC and released on the digital movie platform in Việt Nam.

Specifically, the image of a map with the illegal nine-dash line in the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea) appeared in the second and third episodes of the series.

The appearance of false information is deemed to have seriously violated Vietnamese law. Clauses 3 and 4 in Article 9 of the Press Law along with Clause 4 in Article 11 of the Cinematography Law prohibit the provision of information that incites war, infringes upon Việt Nam’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, distorts history, negates revolutionary achievements, or offends the nation and national heroes of Việt Nam.

The department immediately sent a document to Netflix requesting it to comply with Vietnamese law when broadcasting television services in the country.

This is the third time over the past 12 months that Netflix has been found to stream movies and TV shows with content that violates Việt Nam’s territorial sovereignty when providing services to users in the country.

Earlier, a Chinese series "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" and American series "Madam Secretary" both showed China's nine-dash line violating Việt Nam’s sovereignty, and the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information had immediately issued documents requiring Netflix to remove these movies. — VNS