Channel stands up for local detective series

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish Green Crescent is complaining that the detective Behzat Ç is not representative of the Turkish police with his alcohol and cigarette use.

The management of Star TV made an official statement yesterday against the rumors about the broadcast ban for Turkish detective series Behzat Ç. Ömer Özgüner, the channel’s controller, said that they did not have the slightest intention to stop broadcasting the show before its scripted end.

Earlier in the day, the head of Turkish Green Crescent complained that the detective Behzat Ç was not representative of the Turkish police with his alcohol and cigarette use, saying that the series was doomed to be banned from broadcast soon.

Turkish Green Crescent Head Muzaffer Balcı said his heart was with the public will and that he knew the series also attracted the public’s rage. “You will see, this series will be banned very shortly,” he said.

Balcı said the reality of the Turkish police force was far from how it was represented in the show. “They smoke and get drunk the whole day [in the show],” he said, also slamming the retired police officers who are known to work as consultants during the writing of the script.

Moves against the series, which has a solid audience base in Turkey, started when Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Bülent Belen mentioned the series at a meeting in the Turkish Parliament. He asked Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç whether the government was considering taking action against the “alcohol abuse, extramarital relationships, and far from flattering behavior of the civil servants in the show, who are supposed to represent the ethical values of the Turkish nuclear family.”

Arınç replied that the TV show had already been handed a fine for “making broadcasts in favor of smoking and alcohol abuse,” adding that the government was keeping a close eye on the show.