Tweet
TURKEY FINES "THE SIMPSONS" TV CHANNEL FOR "INSULTING RELIGIOUS VALUES"
December 3, 2012 - 19:56 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's broadcasting regulator is fining a
television channel for insulting religious values after it aired an
episode of "The Simpsons" which shows God taking orders from the devil,
Reuters said.
Radio and television watchdog RTUK said it was fining private
broadcaster CNBC-e 52,951 lira ($30,000) over the episode of the hit
U.S. animated TV series, whose scenes include the devil asking God
to make him a coffee.
"The board has decided to fine the channel over these matters,"
an RTUK spokeswoman said but declined further comment, saying full
details would probably be announced next week. CNBC-e said it would
comment once the fine was officially announced.
Turkey is a secular republic but most of its 75 million people are
Muslim. Religious conservatives and secular opponents vie for public
influence and critics of the government say it is trying to impose
Islamic values by stealth.
"The Simpsons" first aired in 1989 and is the longest-running U.S.
sitcom. It is broadcast in more than 100 countries and CNBC-e has
been airing it in Turkey for almost a decade.
"I wonder what the script writers will do when they hear that the jokes
on their show are taken seriously and trigger fines in a country called
Turkey," wrote Mehmet Yilmaz, a columnist for the Hurriyet newspaper.
"Maybe they will add an almond-moustached RTUK expert to the series,"
he said, evoking a popular Turkish stereotype of a pious government
supporter.
From: A. Papazian
December 3, 2012 - 19:56 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's broadcasting regulator is fining a
television channel for insulting religious values after it aired an
episode of "The Simpsons" which shows God taking orders from the devil,
Reuters said.
Radio and television watchdog RTUK said it was fining private
broadcaster CNBC-e 52,951 lira ($30,000) over the episode of the hit
U.S. animated TV series, whose scenes include the devil asking God
to make him a coffee.
"The board has decided to fine the channel over these matters,"
an RTUK spokeswoman said but declined further comment, saying full
details would probably be announced next week. CNBC-e said it would
comment once the fine was officially announced.
Turkey is a secular republic but most of its 75 million people are
Muslim. Religious conservatives and secular opponents vie for public
influence and critics of the government say it is trying to impose
Islamic values by stealth.
"The Simpsons" first aired in 1989 and is the longest-running U.S.
sitcom. It is broadcast in more than 100 countries and CNBC-e has
been airing it in Turkey for almost a decade.
"I wonder what the script writers will do when they hear that the jokes
on their show are taken seriously and trigger fines in a country called
Turkey," wrote Mehmet Yilmaz, a columnist for the Hurriyet newspaper.
"Maybe they will add an almond-moustached RTUK expert to the series,"
he said, evoking a popular Turkish stereotype of a pious government
supporter.
From: A. Papazian