Turkey government looks to ban dating shows

Turkey's deputy prime minister says he wants to ban popular television dating shows because they are against Turkish culture and customs.

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The New Arab

16 Mar, 2017

Dating shows have been criticised by some conservative sections of Turkish society [YouTube]

Popular dating shows will be banned in Turkey because they do not fit with the country's traditions or customs, the deputy prime minister has warned.

Matchmaking TV shows have become hugely popular in Turkey over the past few years, but have drawn complaints for conservative sections in society.

"There are some strange programmes that would scrap the institution of family, take away its nobility and sanctity," Numan Kurtulmus explained, according to AFP.

"We are working on this and we are coming to the end of it. God willing, in the near future, we will most likely remedy this with an emergency decree. God willing, we will meet these societal demands."

Opponents fear the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is pulling the secular country down a more conservative path.

Kurtulmus argues that dating shows are contrary to Turkey's "customs, traditions, beliefs, the Turkish family structure and the culture of Anatolian lands".

"So what the ratings are very high and thus the advertising revenue is high? Let there not be that kind of advertising revenues."

There have been up to 120,000 complaints against dating programmes, the deputy prime minister said.

Agencies contributed to this story.