Turkey fines TV channel over 'strawberry condom' chit-chat

ISTANBUL - Turkey's increasingly stringent television watchdog has fined a national private channel over a show where the characters discussed the merits of strawberry-flavored condoms, the Hurriyet daily reported Saturday.

TV 2 was fined 12,353 Turkish lira (S$7179.48) for broadcasting the segment from the French-produced comedy sketch show "Vous Les Femmes", which in Turkish is broadcast as "Ah Biz Kadinlar" and in English-speaking countries as "Women!".

"There was a discussion on the topic of strawberry condoms. There should have been warning, given this was during the period when children are watching," it said in its ruling quoted by Hurriyet's website.

Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) has been accused in recent months of imposing moral censorship in recent months for a number of stern rulings.

It also slapped the same 12,353 Turkish lira fine on two Turkish subscription channels - one for broadcasting a movie scene with a naked man and woman and the other for a scene where a man had sex with two women, Hurriyet said.

The rulings came amid growing complaints by the opposition of a moral clampdown in Turkey's officially secular society under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a pious Muslim.

The RTUK in November rebuked one of the country's most popular soap operas - "Kara Para Ask" (Black Money Love) - for a passionate kissing scene deemed excessively erotic.