Malaysia Raids Swatch Stores, Confiscating Pride-Themed Watches

metroweekly.com:

Agence France-Presse news agency, officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs admitted to seizing “22 Swatch watches with LGBT elements” at one outlet.According to the notice, the seizure was justified by the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, a law that has been criticized as draconian for allowing the Home Affairs Minister to censor or restrict news or information if doing so is deemed to be “in the interest of security or public order.”A ministry official, who did not want to be named, defended the seizure to the U.K.-based newspaper The Guardian, saying the watches bore the letters “LGBT” and had six colors instead of the seven that naturally appear in a rainbow.Swatch Group Chief Executive Nick Hayek expressed concern over the raids.“We strongly contest that our collection of watches using rainbow colors and having a message of peace and love could be harmful for whomever,” Hayek said in a statement. “On the contrary, Swatch always promotes a positive message of joy in life.

This is nothing political. We wonder how the Regulatory and Enforcement Division of the Home Ministry will confiscate the many beautiful natural rainbows that are showing up a thousand times a year in the sky of Malaysia.”The company said it has resumed selling the Pride Collection watches and that its legal department is investigating the seizure.

Sarah Kok, the marketing manager for Swatch Malaysia, told The Guardian in a statement, “As per instruction from Switzerland HQ, we will still replenish the stock and display them on-shelf.”The LGBTQ rights group Jejaka slammed the government’s seizure of watches, saying it shows “a deeply unsettling level of intolerance.”“It is more than a matter of colorful watches.