A DEBATE raging over the morals of Hong Kong's racy media took a bizarre twist yesterday with revelations that a decency watchdog had been flooded with obscenity complaints about the Bible.

The Television and Entertainments Licensing Authority (TELA), which oversees the publishing industry, said it had received 208 complaints that text within the holy book was indecent.

"The thrust of the complaints was that the Bible was obscene, that different parts of the Bible were offensive to readers," said a TELA spokeswoman.

TELA refused to divulge details of the complaints, but local media reported that they referred to acts of violence, rape and cannibalism reputedly contained in the Bible.

Reports speculated that the sudden flurry of messages sent to TELA was sparked by a Chinese-language Web site www.truthbible.com, which had exhorted readers to pressure TELA to reclassify the Bible as an indecent publication.

If the complaints are upheld, by law it would mean full texts of the Bible would be deemed suitable to be read only by over-18s in the region, and copies would need to carry a warning and be sold in sealed packaging.

The news comes amid a row in Hong Kong over the classification as indecent a sex survey in a student journal which questioned respondents on bestiality and incest.

The dispute began after publication of the February issue of CU Student Press, a Chinese University of Hong Kong students' publication, that included questions asking readers which family member or animal they would like to have sex with and has now prompted a wider debate about press freedom in Hong Kong.

The Obscene Articles Tribunal ruled that pages within the February, March and April issues of the journal, produced for students at the university together with two online versions were indecent and broke the law.

Student editors of the journal vowed Tuesday to continue publishing a sex column despite the furore.

Editor: Wing