After religious controversy, Turkey fines popular TV series

2023-12-28 18:01:01, Kosova & Bota CNA

Broadcasting authority RTUK decided on Thursday to ban the airing of Turkey's popular TV series "Kizil Goncalar" for two weeks after it was deemed to be against "national and spiritual values ??of society", a board member said.

Ilhan Tasci, an RTUK board member who represents the main opposition, said on social media platform X that the regulator had also imposed a 3 percent administrative fine on broadcaster Fox TV, owned by the Walt Disney Company.

"Kizil Goncalar," which reflects the divide between religious and secular segments of society, faced immediate backlash after it first aired on Dec. 18, even though its first two episodes topped the ratings charts and had more than 10 million views on YouTube.

RTUK has often penalized shows it has labeled as violating Turkey's moral values, family structure or other issues it considers unethical, namely LGBTQ+ rights.

In many cases RTUK has been criticized for curbing freedoms.

Producer Faruk Turgut said the series reflected the sociological reality of Turkey, portraying the clash between secular and religious segments of society.

"I am trying to keep an overview of the realities of Turkish society. The realities must be discussed, we cannot progress by ignoring them," Turgut said, according to Hurriyet daily.

"They declared war on us, but we will fight until the end," he said.

Ebubekir Sahin, chairman of RTUK and a member of President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK party, wrote in X that outraged viewers had called for the show to be canceled and that its posters across Istanbul had been vandalized with black paint.

Pro-government media accused the show of being Islamophobic. The Ismailaga Brotherhood, a prominent religious sect in Turkey, strongly criticized the series.

"Productions in today's media targeting our religion and pious individuals aiming to denigrate the names of Allah, our noble book the Koran are absolutely unacceptable," said the sect in X./ REL