On A Lighter Note:

Turkish TV denies piglet ban
Breitbart News
Agence France-Presse
Jun 18 5:43 AM US/Eastern

Turkey's public broadcaster has denied reports that it has banned the popular Walt Disney cartoon "Winnie the Pooh" because one of the main characters in the show is a piglet.

Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) said late Saturday media reports that "Winnie the Pooh" and other cartoons featuring pigs had been barred "are untrue and aim to discredit the institutioIn a statement carried by the Anatolia news agency, TRT said it had acquired the exclusive right to broadcast Walt Disney's cartoons and movies in Turkey but added, "the Walt Disney materials have not been acquired yet... (and) therefore the cartoon 'Winnie the Pooh' does not exist in TRT records and archives".

Islam regards pigs as unclean and prohibits the consumption of pork.

TRT is controlled by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government, which is under fire for seeking to raise the profile of Islam in mainly Muslim but strictly secular Turkey.

Newspapers had reported earlier Saturday that TRT had considered scissoring the scenes showing Piglet, but abandoned the idea because the character appeared too often and decided to bar the cartoon altogether from its screens.

"Winnie the Pooh" has been aired on other channels in Turkey and videos and DVDs of the programme are on sale there.

TRT said the deal with Walt Disney, worth about 880,000 dollars (696,000 euros), would supply the station with cartoons to run for almost four years.

Employees have recently complained of increasing government intervention in TRT's broadcasting policy, including the appointment of ruling party cronies to key posts at the institution, which has several television and radio channels.