by Thinus Ferreira
In June NBCUniversal International Networks abruptly removed the Spanish telenovela Nurses from its Telemundo (DStv 118) channel in Africa without explanation, with the decision to axe the show - featuring a gay couple - coming during Prime Month after Uganda's president signed into law draconian new anti-gay legislation.
Nurses is the latest TV content removed from DStv across Africa over the last few years by international channel distributors like Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global and NBCUniversal International Networks due to LGBTQ content or characters.
NBCUniversal International Networks has only one channel feed for Telemundo Africa for the entire continent so it's impossible to remove content for just one or two African countries.
Operating on a lowest common denominator system, content banned in one country means it is removed on Telemundo's playout programming schedule for all countries, including South Africa.
NBCUniversal International Networks still issued highlights and programming synopses for Nurses for June and July although these episodes were pulled and never shown.
Nurses, filmed in Colombia and known as Enfermeras, is dubbed into English for DStv subscribers in South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa and has been shown since February 2022 but last month the show abruptly disappeared and was replaced by a rebroadcast of Decisions in prime time after NBCUniversal Networks stopped the telenovela that was in its fourth season.
Nurses includes a gay couple, Álvaro and Felipe, portrayed by Julián Trujillo and Miguel González.
After Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni signed into law new legislation that criminalises identifying as LGBTQIA+ or the "promotion" of homosexuality, Cameroon's government censorship body, the National Communication Council (NCC), issued a notification with the subject "Warning", threatening that TV channels will be suspended that broadcast "scenes of homosexuality".
The NCC said that it has noticed "the proliferation of programmes promoting homosexual practices", "generally broadcast by foreign editors" and that it "calls on the promoters of channels broadcasting programmes showing scenes of homosexuality in Cameroon to immediately withdraw these programmes, which violate the law, morality and customs of our country, on pain of the outright suspension of the media concerned".
In June, about the sudden removal of Nurses, NBCU International Networks said "We intend to comply with local broadcast regulations in each market where we broadcast and are adjusting the programming as necessary".
Now NBCU International Networks in response to a media query from TVwithThinus says that Nurses will return to the Telemundo schedule. It's however not clear whether episodes of Nurses are getting edited with a reversioned edition removing the gay characters of Álvaro and Felipe.
"Following
an adjustment to the planned schedule, Telemundo viewers can now look forward
to Nurses rejoining the schedule in September," NBCU International Networks says.
MultiChoice was asked about Telemundo's removal of Nurses during Pride Month because of gay content and how it aligns with MultiChoice support of the LGBTQ community, as well as what will happen when more African countries demand content removal which will mean that it disappears for subscribers in South Africa and elsewhere.
In a response, MultiChoice says "We do not have editorial control over the content
of third-party channels or their content schedules".
"From 11 September season 4 of Nurses will return from its season break and air on Telemundo. We encourage viewers to explore some of the great content
offered on the channel including other DStv channels such as Zee World and
TLNovelas".
