Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced the passage of his Stopping Communist Regimes from Engaging in Edits Now Act (SCREEN Act) in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.
Tyranny has no respect for borders. The CCP is exporting its totalitarian censorship to Hollywood, demanding America's film industry be complicit in its malign agenda.
MORE on my SCREEN Act: pic.twitter.com/zLSjhxq4n9
— Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) July 26, 2023
Green’s bill, if enacted, would prohibit the U.S. State Department from assisting studios that censor films for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“The Chinese Communist Party has no place dictating the content of American films. American filmmakers should feel free to be as patriotic as they like without fear of Xi Jinping asking them to remove images of American flags or the Statue of Liberty,” Green said in a statement. “Allowing Beijing to take a red pen to our movie scripts is downright un-American and sets a dangerous precedent. Our films are an expression of American culture and that should not be influenced by a dictator 7,000 miles from our shores.”
America: This is what could happen if we let the CCP boss us around. pic.twitter.com/ay78jK5FB3
— Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) July 27, 2023
“My SCREEN Act shows that the United States will not be pushed around, not on the international stage or on the Oscar stage. I’m glad my bill passed out of Committee. House Republicans made a commitment to the American people to stand up to China’s malign influence—my bill does this,” Green added.
Shortly after Green introduced the bill, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced it would no longer work with film studios that censor their movies on behalf of the CCP.
While Green applauded the DOD’s rule, he says the state department needs “protections against CCP propaganda written in law.”
Green’s SCREEN Act was also included in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed the House by a 219-210 vote. The package, which is the primary authorization for funding the U.S. Armed Forces and DOD, is currently being negotiated in the U.S. Senate.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
