Turkey’s media watchdog fines TV show for dance ‘against public morality’

ISTANBUL

The popular show “Ben Bilmem Eşim Bilir” (I Don't Know, My Partner Knows) has been fined 410,000 by RTÜK.

Turkey’s media watchdog has fined a TV show 410,000 Turkish Liras for "immorality," after it showed husbands dancing with other women while their wives looked on.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) fined the popular Kanal D show “Ben Bilmem Eşim Bilir” (I Don't Know, My Partner Knows) after a game in one of the episodes was found to be “against public morality” and “ruining the family structure,” daily Cumhuriyet reported.

The offending episode was broadcast on Nov. 16 and featured male contestants dancing, sometimes closely, with a group of foreign women, as the men’s wives or girlfriends watched. The female contestants were seen exclaiming, “Really? Is this a joke? I will kill him,” in the studio as they looked on.

The RTÜK ruling said the scene that was played out on screen “encouraged men to cheat on their wives and provided an environment that would harm family tranquility.” It added that the show “degraded women to the level of a sexual object.”

RTÜK also raised eyebrows last month after it fined private station ATV for broadcasting a drama that featured a scene involving a kiss that it described as “lip-o-suction.”