The Glorious People's Republic of China defended its new anti-porn software which has branded the cartoon Cat Garfield an enemy of the state.

Chinese state media has had to mount an unprecedented defence of newly required Internet filtering software after it was revealed that the software was wide open to hackers. It was also banning harmless pictures such as Garfield and piglets.

Put on the defensive, state broadcaster CCTV announced on its noon news program on Thursday that a "vast number of parents and experts" had endorsed the "Green Dam-Youth Escort" filtering software that must be packaged with all units sold in China.

None of these vast number were prepared to be interviewed and if they were then you had to take CCTV's word that that they were not ordered by the Party to say that sort of thing. You also had to trust that they had not been put up to it by Oddie. The official Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily praised the software as a new breakthrough in the drive for a "civilised Internet management and access".

If it was North Korea rather than admitting it had made a cock up, the Party would have added that Garfield was an evil capitalist fat cat who was probably homosexual and should be locked up for the good of the people.